Independent on Sunday

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Independent on Sunday

Postby Franco » Fri Jan 21, 2005 8:24 am

The Independent on Sunday food section will be doing a feature on one of my 'sausage nights' next Friday. The famous food writer Bill Knott will help out making sausage, salami, ham etc. and will report on it for the newspaper.


As the rest of the evening will take the form of an informal dinner party I would like any suggestions you have for a starter. The guests will be bringing : 1 x Gloucester Old Spot half pig, 2 x pink feet geese, 1 x roe deer.

I am looking for ideas for am a starter using any of the above.


Regards


Franco
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Postby TobyB » Fri Jan 21, 2005 9:33 am

My best suggestion would be to use the venison to make a sort of carpaccio.

When I've done this in the past I've used the fillet. I like to flash fry it in a really hot skillet to seal the outside and to enhance the flavour leaving the middle as close to raw as possible (hence "sort of" carpaccio).

Slice as thinly as is possible (no prob for you with your commercial slicer)
and arrange on plates.
Serve with rocket and shavings of parmesan cheese (use a potato peeler if you don't have a madolin) and a squeeze of lemon juice (do this at the last minute as otherwise the lemon juice will cure the venison) .
Drizzle with good quality white truffle infused olive oil over the whole.
Season with good sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Make some home made rolls to go with it.

The rocket adds the pepperiness, the parmesan the savoury and the truffle oil melds the two. The lemon juice helps to cut through the whole and stops it tasting greasy but be careful you don't add too much as it can overpower the flavour.

I personally like to arrange the carpaccio around the plate like a flower putting a mound of rocket in the hole in the middle. couple of parmesan shavings on top of the rocket.

I'll have a think about the other two possible meat ingredients.
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Postby Oddley » Fri Jan 21, 2005 10:52 am

Franco if it's informal then maybe a bit if finger food to start. What about

Indian kebabs which is spiced minced meat molded on a kebab sticks served with a little tomato, cucumber and onion salad. Deer with a bit of pork fat would be a nice change.

Or

Use the goose like duck and do crispy goose let them wrap their own crispy duck style rolls with some plum sauce slivers of spring onion and cucumber.

Or

Still in the Chinese vein serve spare ribs with a BBQ dipping sauce.
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Postby TobyB » Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:22 am

thinking further on this (and your porky theme) if you have some pancetta style streaky bacon it would be nice to toss the rocket with some pancetta as well. The saltiness of the pancetta would go well.


For other recipes this website is pretty comprehensive (over 160,000 with a search function):

http://associate.com/recipes/
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Postby TobyB » Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:29 am

Oddley, thanks for pointing out the "informal" bit I'd overlooked that!

I'll have a further think. Like the sound of the kebabs!

Does crispy goose work? I'd have thought that the goose was too strongly flavoured but have never tried it so would welcome confirmation that I'm wrong as I sometimes shoot geese and usually struggle to find things to do with them as I'm not a fan of goose but love crispy duck.
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Postby Twoscoops » Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:39 am

I cooked 2 geese at Chrismas. The skin was beautifully crispy, and yes It would have worked well in pancakes with plum sauce - the best dish in the world IMHO.
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Postby Oddley » Fri Jan 21, 2005 12:33 pm

TobyB I could not expand on twoscoops answer.

Franco another idea if you would like to make it fun then

Use a couple of those Swedish fondue sets to keep hot some good Chinese stock made from chicken and pork. Slice thinly the raw meats and also vegetables. Let you guests cook their own food by dipping it in the stock with chop sticks or any other implement. Then serve the stock as soup when they are finished.

A great time saver as you have to do very little cooking and good fun for the guests.
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Postby Parson Snows » Fri Jan 21, 2005 6:01 pm

Franco

As you only have one week max. left most cured items will probably be ruled out, though I believe that the main purpose is to actually prepare the items on the night. I would however, suggest that you offer a Goose Liver pate with Water Biscuits and Cheddar Cheese or Goose in Aspic. The flavourings etc. that you add to the pate are up to you, though if you decide to go down this path I can certainly look through my files for you. Let me know. A lot of it depends on what, if any, drinks etc. will be served.
What I mean by this is that you match the food, certainly the starters, with the drinks that will be served/available.


kind regards

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Heavenly Father Bless us
And keep us all alive
There's ten around the table
And food enough for five... Amen
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suggestions

Postby Franco » Sat Jan 22, 2005 10:53 am

Thanks for the ideas, I'll probably go for something with goose liver pate to start and then a selection of rare meats carpaccio style as I've just required a small hare which is excellent rare.

Would you suggest adapting a chiken liver pate recipe or does anyone have a specific goose liver pate recipe?


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Postby Fatman » Sat Jan 22, 2005 11:24 am

Franco

Good luck with your evening when it happens, as it already has been pointed out it is informal and they are usually the best sort.

You do need some impact along the way , so perhaps you could think of using the feet from your geese (deep fried or seasoned & shallow fried in their own fat.), remember wild geese offer a different meat to commercial geese obviously less fat and the meat is normally brown. Does your breed of geese bottom feed in water if they do they will be tainted with that unusual taste of dirt and grit.

Just a thought, if you offered different kind of cuts of meat and different marinades and sauces you could allow your guests to cook using a marble topped Raclette this is very sociable and great fun.

Now using Salami and Pancetta, several slices of each in a large frying pan, saute in olive oil , add wild and or dried mushrooms, garlic if you wish , now add creme fraische . Having earlier cooked your pasta which I did not mention, add this to your mix and toss together, serve with shaved parmesan and a green dressing of water cress or similar. If you wish you can have a side plate of sliced ciabatta bread toasted then rubbed with garlic and drizzled with a walnut flavoured olive oil( again your guests need to be involved here).

Whatever you decide to do , I'm sure it will be a great success!

Regards

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Goose Liver Pate

Postby Parson Snows » Sat Jan 22, 2005 12:30 pm

Franco
Would you suggest adapting a chiken liver pate recipe or does anyone have a specific goose liver pate recipe?

There is one in Jane Grigson's Charcuterie (page 90-91 of my copy) or see below

http://www.recipe-for.com/goose/pate-foies-gras.htm

you could use any chicken liver pate recipe if you want though I would suggest adding cognac, armagnac or port

kind regards

Parson Snows
Heavenly Father Bless us
And keep us all alive
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And food enough for five... Amen
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UPDATE

Postby Franco » Sun Feb 06, 2005 5:12 pm

The sausage night went pretty well last Friday, the journalist (Bill Knott) was a good sport and got stuck in with the sausage making.
In the end we decided to keep it simple and had the following :

Home made black pudding
Smoked duck breast
Game sausage (rabbit,hare,pigeon)
Italian sausage
Fresh chorizo

Leek and potato mash

Lemon tart

English cheese board.
The article will be in next weeks Independent on Sunday.
Thanks for all the suggestions.

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Postby Robd » Fri Feb 11, 2005 2:50 pm

Hi Franco so that will be this weekend the 13th??

Cheers

Rob
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Postby TobyB » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:47 pm

So what happened? I bought it but couldn't find the article.
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Postby robin » Mon Feb 14, 2005 3:21 pm

Niether could I. Maybe all this Royal Wedding stuff got priority ?
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