Since I moved in to my new flat I have had nothing but strife, I’ve had post stolen and I have to put up with the noisy hip hop addicted student that lives above me. I like to think i’m a tolerant person, I want to live in peace and as long as my sleep isn’t disturbed I’m not bothered what other people get up to, the exception to this is of course when said student decides to burn fish fingers late at night setting off the fire alarms for the whole building!

I could say it stopped there but it didn’t. Her boiler exploded last Friday pumping gallons of water straight into my bedroom, a situation – whilst not directly her fault, could have been made far less worse if she or her boyfriend had the tenacity and knowledge of how to turn off there water supply. But silly me for thinking that.

I won’t bore you any longer with my griping so back to the recipe. I love ham hock, it’s inexpensive and full of flavour, it takes a bit of work to get the meat off the bone but at only around £1.60 each it’s worth the effort. I created this salad because I wanted something bright, healthy and luscious but also doesn’t cost the earth. The slightly aniseed flavour of the fennel seeds enhance the flavour of the ham, and paired with apple and a cider vinegar dressing this salad is a bright sunny plate of food. I know ham hocks look like a prop from a horror film, but please go out and get some. they are delicious!

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I love leftovers, and I get quite excited about the challenge of using them up, there’s something satisfying about using an ingredient that may have ended up as the dogs dinner or worse, in the bin. How many times have you groaned at the half eaten joint of beef sitting in the fridge, knowing it’s destined for sandwiches and thought ‘there must be something I can do with this’. My memories of croquettes are of frozen mash covered in luminous bread crumbs, deep fried until black and served with chips and beans, a far cry from what a croquette should actually be. There are so many versions across the globe, the Spanish have ‘croquetas’ a tapas style dish filled with ham, the ‘krokett’ from Hungary that contains nutmeg, even the Korean’s have a version . I created this recipe to help use up those otherwise boring leftovers, turning some of Sundays roast beef into something new and fresh.

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A couple of years ago I was sitting at my nanny’s house talking about various things, mostly about the past, food and what we were like as kids when we got talking about my great grandma or ‘Nanny Wright’ as I called her. I don’t remember an awful lot about her as she died when I was fairly young, but I do remember going to her house and it being blindingly hot, she would sit there and take 20p out of her purse and give it to me in such an endearing way as if she was crossing my palm with a valuable gold coin. To me at that age it was valuable, because you could buy a milky way bar with 20p!

When she died I couldn’t really feel much emotion, I was too young to completely understand what had happened, all I remember is my Nanny being upset about it which in turn upset me, because all I ever knew was my dear sweet nanny, always happy and always busy. Instead I saw her sitting and sobbing.

As we sat and continued talking she presented me with this little black book, inside is not just a collection of recipes, but a living connection to her past. I love this little book and every time I look at it it never fails to raise a smile.

What I found really interesting was that before I was even given this book, my dad used to talk about the ‘stick jaw’ toffee his nanny used to make, he said it would smash your teeth into a thousand bits but tasted great. His grandad – nick named ‘oi oi’ (who I never met) used to keep chunks of this toffee in his pocket whilst was working, pulling out bits for my dad as a treat which In most cases ended up covered in fluff, engine oil and pipe tobacco. I found the recipe for this ‘stick jaw toffee’ my dad so fondly remembers!

Quite a lot of the recipes in this book are preserved, lots of jams chutneys and pickles, presumably out of necessity as refrigeration was still a rarity back then. Dad told me that she was a wonder woman, she could rustle up a 3 course dinner from a kitchen so tiny you couldn’t extend both arms fully, and yet she would make it look so easy.

She was a woman who liked her sweets, in some of her recipes she simply lists the ingredients and no method, probably because she had it that often she could remember it off by heart.

I found many references to something called ‘Fry’s chocolate spread’ and in all the recipes that call for it it’s written in capital letters, obviously highlighting the fact this was a luxury ingredient and was probably quite expensive, and the fact there were quite a few recipes that included it suggests she quite enjoyed pushing the boat out.

I think the most heart warming thing for me is how this book was shared with my nanny, I found a few recipes that have been written by her, I know this because it’s written in pen not pencil and my Nanny’s writing is very recognisable. I can just see them both in the kitchen trying out new things, tasting and nanny being guided by her mum.

I think Nanny wright deserves credit, I would love to have known her properly, she clearly cared about food, family and her daughter. She shared her knowledge of food in a little black book, all beaten and used, with food stains and pen squiggles dotting every page. In each page is her and nanny, a mother and daughter cooking, creating and sharing precious moments all written down in this book that I have so gratefully received. Thank you Nanny wright.

There are certain foods that just seem to make you feel a bit fuzzy inside, the sort of foods that wrap you up in a blanket, kiss you on the tummy and say everything is OK in the world. We all have our own comfort foods, and this is one of mine. When I was younger I used to only think macaroni cheese came in tins, I used to buy it thinking ‘how the hell is this gloopy stuff made?’ I was never very impressed by it so I ended up trying to make it myself. Before the days of the internet when a recipe was at your fingertips, what should have been a simple affair – ended up as a gloopy overcooked mess of packet cheese sauce and pasta, rubbish cheese and a rather disappointed cook. Thankfully I learned from my mistakes and created this, a far cry from the tinned stuff.

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It’s been a year since I started this blog, and golly it’s gone quicker than Jimmy saville’s reputation. In a fleeting 12 months I have gone from a blogging nobody to a….well a blogging nobody, was I expecting anything more in my first year? Of course not and the reason is simple, I have common sense. Every year around Jan/feb there is a huge influx of food bloggers that throw themselves at the keyboard, bashing away with boundless enthusiasm convinced that they are going to get a book deal in a week, attain monolithic status in the blogging world and makes hundreds of millions of pounds and never have to work again. The truth is blogging is far FAR away from that, it takes determination and hard work for no financial reward for a number of years no matter what you write about. It’s hard work, something I think so many new bloggers fail to understand.

I am not new to blogging and maybe that’s where my common sense has come from, I’ve written a few blogs in the past, one of which I sold because I just didn’t love what I was doing and the others, well let’s just say they were a vision derived from pound symbol eyes and I quickly realised that this was not for me, sure I would love to make a living from blogging but I know that as with anything in life it takes hard work. I can’t lie and say I don’t want to succeed because I do, doing something you love for a living is everyone’s dream right? But the last thing I want to do right now (as I see so often these days) is slap tons of adverts all over the place in a vain attempt to scrape a few pennies together. It just isn’t worth it and I would much rather put the time and energy into giving you the best writing I can.

So what have I learned over the past year? Well I think the biggest learning for me is how much work is involved running a food blog, it’s even more work than the previous blogs for a number of reasons. When I present a recipe to you guys I make it look like a simple affair. I write down the ingredients, I list the method of cooking and I place some good or not so good pictures for you to gorp at. The end result is a lovingly presented post for you to read and comment on, a post for you to disagree with, slate, pick up grammatical errors, smile at, love or hate, enjoy or reel in disgust, share with friends and family and god knows maybe give one of the recipes a go!

Running a food blog is not easy I can tell you that for a fact. I have a full time job that as well as paying my bills it also funds the blog, it pays for the hosting and all the ingredients I buy for the recipes. If you read the blog regularly you will notice I tend to write recipes mostly on Wednesdays and Sundays and that’s because these are on – most weeks my days off, so this allows me the time to develop, make a recipe, photograph and write up a post.

I wake up pretty early on a blogging day to give me enough time to go out and buy any ingredients I might need and to plan out the recipe. I have so many recipes that haven’t made it to the blog yet simply because they are still being worked on and just simply won’t do for the site yet. (the potted crab recipe I created was awful). After making the recipe I will then set about photographing it. This can be a tricky affair for me as I haven’t yet mastered my camera, and even after a year the functions of a cannon eos 1000d still confuses me, but I’m getting better over time. After photographing the food I then have to sift through all the pictures to find the right one for the post. I then crop and re size the pictures before writing up the post. It’s a long day and a day off is rarely a day off. Even on the days I’m working I get home and start working on promotion, making notes on future recipes, engaging with people on social networks, tweaking the design of the blog, replying to the few emails I get and working on my book.

I have had some successes and failures over this past year, the biggest success if you like was being invited to speak on BBC radio 5 on the horse meat scandal, I was a complete wreck and at first was reluctant to do it, but I did and I was happy that I did. I have also met some amazing people offline and online. Some blogs you might want to have a look at and follow on twitter are below. Failures have been a big part of the blog, not only recipes not turning out how they should but also the negativity and doubtfulness of others can have a huge impact on your self esteem. I have had periods of complete blogging meltdown. I’ve thought about jacking the whole lot in on a number of occasions because of something someone has said or emailed.

So you see there is a lot for me to think about and I ask not a single penny from you. I give my work freely to you because I enjoy doing it and you know what? For all the work I put in, the best reward is when you guys like what I do, no amount of money in the world could compete with the satisfaction of knowing someone has tried and liked one of your recipes. The minute someone makes something of mine I feel an instant connection with them, I feel proud that the food that makes me happy has made someone else happy too.

Well I shall conclude this post by saying thank you, thank you for reading my posts and thank you for supporting me. I will carry on giving you the best I possibly can for as many years as I can. Blogging isn’t easy, but you make it easier

Thanks for reading

Some blogs to follow:

Eatlikeagirl – She is a wonderful woman, and has been blogging for 6 years

Foodurchin – A funny witty food blogger, full of sarcasm and good recipes

Northernsnippet – This woman is hilarious, a landlady of a pub she vents on her blog with funny consequences

Elliebakes – Ellie is fairly new to blogging like me, she is sincere and a lovely young lady that makes some amazing cakes!

Tinnedtoms – Jac Is great, wonderful blogger and some great recipes for mum’s

Gingeybites  -A ginger midlands food blogger, witty and humourous with a positve approach to food

Essexeating – Dan is a great bloke, loves his food and isn’t afraid to shout about it.

People on that there twitter:

Nigel slater – Has been an inspiration to me, and loves talking on twitter

Mat follas – 2009 Masterchef winner, mat is so friendly and loves some banter

Amanda lamb – She was the original scottish widow, now a foodie/presenter. Gorgeous woman and very chatty

Eatlikeagirl – Niamh is always on twitter, a London foodie and crispaholic

Gregg wallace – Well know masterchef judge, a great bloke and has lot’s of time for people.

Elliebee – Writer of Ellie bakes, a great girl with lots to say on twitter.

Theribman – Famous in london for his amazing ribs, A great bloke and he sells hot sauce…which is stupidly hot as well as delicious by the way

Did you know the blueberry is a super food? Research suggests they help prevent cancer, they have bundles of vitamin c and k and also contain fiber, plus a boot load of other micro-nutrients so there is no doubting these juicy berries of deliciousness are good for you. Saying that, I have probably outweighed any nutritional benefit by suspending them in cream cheese sugar and double cream, all slathered over a rich buttery biscuit base of sublime decadence. This is a rich pudding for special occasions or a treat, it’s topped with a toasted hazelnut praline which gives it a sweet nutty crunch. Go on make it, you know it makes sense.

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Hello everyone, have you missed me? Yes I know I know sorry I have been away for almost 2 months but life has been getting in the way of blogging lately. To cut a long story short I had moving house trauma, the sort of trauma that meant I had no t.v or internet for 3 weeks, so needless to say I spent a lot of time watching dvd’s and reading books. Not a bad thing, but you can’t blog from a book!

I have moved into the city centre to be closer to work, and what became a move out of necessity and saving money has actually become a dream for me as I now have much greater access to some amazing produce I previously couldn’t get hold of. In my 3 weeks of living the metropolitan lifestyle I have come across Celriac’s for a quid, discovered the delights of polish supermarkets and there vast array of cured meats. Leicester market is literally 7 minutes walk away which as many of you may know is abundant with produce. Today I picked up 10 lemons for 50p, 3 rashers of bacon for 53p, some gorgeous fat earthy beetroot for 80p and 2 wood pigeons for under £4. The lemons I have no idea what to do with yet but the other ingredients have played a part in this wonderful ‘return from internet abyss’ recipe I have created for you.

Don’t confuse wood pigeon with the scraggy flying rats you see around city centre’s, these are completely different. They are shot in the wild where they have been flapping about pecking berries, nuts and all things wholesome…Not I hasten to add old fag ends and sick from a inebriated student from the night before.

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Since being alive on this planet I have learned a few things, I now know fleetwood mac are the greatest band ever, I know what it means to be loved and love but more importantly I know what good food tastes like, and it’s something I vehemently defend. When I was a young adult I wasn’t much of a cook, my culinary skills stretched as far as buying a tin of chicken in white sauce and microwave rice, heating it and calling it gourmet cuisine. However I hope I have come along way since then. There is a dish that we Brits and many other nations seem to abuse so much it’s as unrecognisable as say putting tomatoes on a slice of toast and calling it a pizza, it is of course the bolognese or ‘spag bol’ as we so affectionately call it. We are all guilty of buying a jar of ready made sauce and bunging it into a pan with some mince, cooking them together for 20 minutes before slaking over a plate of watery over cooked spaghetti, turning what should be a rich meaty dish into a vapid pool of sweet sickly additive ridden sauce of crapness. I live in an optimistic world when it comes to bolognese, I find myself scouring the supermarket shelves for new and exciting sauces hoping to find the holy grail, the one that will give me a proper bolognese ragu, of course I won’t find it and I never will, because you only get that from making it yourself.

The mistake everyone makes is using the wrong pasta, spaghetti is long and thin which is ideal for creamy based dishes such as carbonara but it just simply doesn’t work for bolognese, for that you need a pasta with a good surface area like pappardelle, fettuccine or in this case tagliatelle. This allows the meat and sauce to cling to the pasta. Another mistake people make is making the sauce too runny, a bolognese should be thick almost dry in appearance so that when you dive your fork in it mixes with the pasta and coats every strand.

This recipe is not a quick dinner for after work and requires a few hours cooking, but having said that it does freeze very well, so making a big batch on a lazy Saturday afternoon is a good idea. Freeze any leftovers to have when you like. If you make this please don’t finish the dish with that shameful Parmesan imposter that comes in tubs, use the fresh stuff and grate all of it, put into an old takeaway tub or Tupperware pot and freeze it, using when required, it’s much much better. And don’t throw the Parmesan rind away either, freeze it and pop into casseroles and stews for added savouriness.

The best thing to do is get everything prepped before cooking, so dice the vegetables, weigh out the pancetta etc before you start.

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What does food mean to you? Do you fawn over the thought of a juicy steak like the one above or do you see food as fuel for your busy life and couldn’t really care less what you eat? I would like to think my readers fall in to the first category, if you do then how would you feel if I told you that juicy tender steak above was actually horse, are you viewing it with different eyes now?

There is divided opinion about eating horse meat, many parade themselves as a paragon of virtue by saying it shouldn’t be eaten, it’s cruel and in humane whilst tucking into a roast leg of lamb. There are those that won’t eat it because they’re either vegetarian or just won’t eat it based on there own principles but still respect it for what it is. Then there are those that would happily chomp down horse meat willingly.

I had an uncomfortable situation today, all centred around this dish. I went into a shop to buy this piece of slate, the woman at the counter got into a friendly chat about how nice this piece of slate was and how she might get some for herself, the conversation quickly went sour after I told her I was putting horse meat on it, her face dropped and as I walked away she reeled in horror to her colleague about the atrocious thing I was doing, the whole thing made me un easy and I had second thoughts about posting this. But as I thought about it more I realised that I had nothing to be nervous about, as all I had done was source some responsibly reared meat from a well regulated farm, it just so happened to be horse meat.

There seems to this stigma attached to eating horse, mostly because of our companionistic view of them, we see them as pillars of beauty and lust over there majestic manes, something I view myself, they are beautiful creatures but so are pigs cows and chickens, so who are we to decide which animal gets to have a life of being farmed and which gets to live in a carpeted oasis of treats, squeaky toys and plush bedding. Who are we to decide that a pig is belly fodder yet a horse is off limits?

I will never understand those that willfully remove themselves from where meat comes from yet happily tuck into a pork chop, bacon butty or a roast chicken. This kind of self censorship only breeds ignorance and an un willingness to try something new. This recipe used haunch steaks and it tasted delicious, it’s similar to beef but slightly sweeter, it’s extremely tender.

I’m not saying everyone should now go out and buy horse meat, what I am saying is respect it for what it is, a horse died for me to enjoy these steaks but so did a cute fluffy lamb for you to enjoy your Sunday roast.

Now for the recipe, if you don’t want to use horse meat this recipe will also work with fillet or rump steak.

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]]> http://www.thebritishmenu.com/blog/challenging-our-preconceptions-of-food/feed/ 2 http://www.thebritishmenu.com/puddingsdesserts/shortbread-with-raspberry-clotted-cream/ http://www.thebritishmenu.com/puddingsdesserts/shortbread-with-raspberry-clotted-cream/#comments Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:13:36 +0000 Adam Garratt http://www.thebritishmenu.com/?p=975 I’m always disappointed with shop bought shortbread, not that they are horrible it’s just the promised butteriness is non existent, replaced with claggy overly heavy biscuits of despair doomed to the back of the cupboard or given to someone else that might appreciate them. Shortbread should be light, crumbly and supremely buttery, a savoury sweet [...]]]>

I’m always disappointed with shop bought shortbread, not that they are horrible it’s just the promised butteriness is non existent, replaced with claggy overly heavy biscuits of despair doomed to the back of the cupboard or given to someone else that might appreciate them. Shortbread should be light, crumbly and supremely buttery, a savoury sweet and decadent treat. OK I’m not going to sugar coat it, this dessert is not for the treadmill brigade or those obsessed with weight watching. It has all the good things in life mixed into it, butter, sugar, cream and more cream. These little puds can be made in advance too so ideal for a dinner party.

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