Crocodile Steaks

Never smile at a crocodile

No you can't get friendly with a crocodile

Don't be taken in by his friendly grin

He's imagining how well you'd fit within his skin

My mother used to sing that to me when I was a kid. She spent her working life teaching five and six year olds and her spare time coaching them to be brilliant in Eisteddfod, with the result being that her face took on such a wonderful animation when she sang these kind of songs, and hearing her sing this one in particular made all within earshot squeal with terrified delight.

Crocodiles are ancient creatures, possibly around even at the time of the extinction of the dinosaurs, and as they move so smoothly between water and land you can almost see evolution in progress. I've seen them in the wild as well as in zoos around the world and mostly they are very still, so you'd hardly notice them at all. I was intrigued by them at Berlin Zoo on a long ago visit and stood watching a group of them for 20 minutes or more. I swear none of them moved a muscle apart from an occasional blink. Then it was feeding time and a keeper stood on a bridge above them and threw down hunks of meat - there was an immediate frenzy of thrashing limbs and snapping jaws. I was on the other side of a glass wall and I was TERRIFIED. Others may claim to imagine handbags and shoes when they see them but me? Nooooooo. I'm way too busy making sure I'm not smiling.

Recently I went to a food and wine pairing with wines from Touraine in the Loire, with the talented winematcher Fiona Beckett hosting the evening. Matching half a dozen dishes  with two wines each it was interesting to compare not just the wines but also the way they changed with the food. With sole goujons and chips - apparently sauvignon blanc has been voted a great wine pair with one of Britain's favourite dishes - I liked the grassy freshness of  the Domaine Guenault, Famille Bougrier 2011 on first sip but was surprised at how much it brought out the flavour of the food. I was too quick with my quaffing to follow Fiona's suggestion of trying it first just with the fish then adding lemon juice and trying again but with the lemon there was a proper balance of the wine's acidity with the citrus. Might have to move on from my go to pairing of beer and chips!

Over the course of the evening the assembled group of invited bloggers tried a variety of reds and whites with different foods. I am always a bit uncertain about how to make the matches but Fiona was both incredibly knowledgeable and quite reassuring. She makes the point that as you cook you taste, and the choice of wine is simply part of that tasting process rather than, as I tend to think, a separate activity. Wine can obviously improve the experience of food, and she explained that the way food is cooked is usually more relevant than the base ingredients, so the strong flavours of the smoked venison with a red wine reduction we had towards the end of the tasting really needs the robustness and slight funkyness of the Henry Marionnet, Vinifera 2010, a great balance of  flavours of food to wine, and my favourite wine of the evening.

The last wine of the night was lightly chilled Domaine Paget Sparkling Rosé, a wonderfully unsweet slightly berryish richly pink glass of fizz. After the evenings tuition we were invited to make our own matches with a brilliant array of berries and fruits, brimmimng bowls of chantilly and mascarpone, piles of pretty biscuits and an assortment of chocolate in various forms. I laid out an attractive selection plate and set to with gusto. Though I'm not really a fan of white chocolate it was okay with the wine, the raspberries were a better match, I liked the sharp tang of the lime segments though you wouldn't do a lot of them!

It is part of developing what Fiona describes as a palate memory - honed by trying wine and food in different combinations and different situations and remembering what you like. The last element to successful matching is just being appropriate - a cheap simple wine is a quaffable match to a plate of pasta, a wildly expensive rare vintage is the obvious starting point for an entirely different menu, the wine determining the food in this instance.

In the end my dessert of choice for the rosé was probably the simplest food on my plate - juicy slices of nectarine with a light grind of black pepper - the rich sweetness of the fruit and the tiny prickles of heat was a great match for this rosé, sumptuous enough to match the bubbles and wonderfully clean after taste - refreshing on a surprsingly hot summer evening.

At home on the weekend my cousin and her husband were visiting from Australia and they came to visit with their son and his wife, the lovely J&M - a perfect excuse to chill the pink bubbly. I paired it with mostly savoury things and I loved the way it matched the richness of the guinciale in particular.

There was also a bottle of Morrison's Touraine Sauvignon Blanc, 2011, that was paired on the tasting night with a prawn and noodle salad and it worked well with the chilli and seafood. Once home I went round and round wondering what to match it with, settling briefly on something lemony and chickeny then deciding  there must be something better. Watching Celebrity Masterchef the other night the contestants were given crocodile as one of  the mystery ingredients, to some consternation it has to be said. The man grinned with delight and said how come we never have crocodile? For me it was the eureka moment.

I'm not sure if crocodile is technically seafood or land creature - fish or fowl? - but it is definitely a white flesh that is more robust than delicate and extremely lean with it. I bought a couple of tail fillets - pieces you understand, not whole tails - from the Exotic Meat Company at Borough (they do mail order) and marinated them for a few hours before flash frying them. I made a bowl of fresh cabbage salad and added a tablespoon of  toasted desiccated coconut and served it all with plain basmati.

Marinated Crocodile Steaks

Serves 2

2 crocodile steaks from the tail - though thinking about it if it's not the teeth then crocodile is mostly tail
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small green chilli, thinly sliced, deseeded if you don't like it too hot
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon unflavoured vegetable oil

Put the crocodile steaks into a flat bowl, mix the juice, olive oil, chilli, ginger, garlic and salt until well combined and pour over the meat. Rub well into both sides of the flesh then cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Warm the vegetable oil in a fryng pan over a high heat. Add the steaks and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side till lightly crusted and cooked through. Serve with rice and cabbage salad and a chilled glass of sauvignon blanc.

I'm delighted to say the wine worked a treat with it all, really bringing out the flavour of the meat and making for a great end to a really enjoyable weekend.

Have to include this photo of the handsomest dog in the world - Eddie came along for the excitement - and was definitely intrigued by the rosé!

 

Pot Roast Guinea Fowl with Onion Sauce

Recently I was invited to a French guinea fowl masterclass and what a fabulous evening it was.  Andy Stephenson, chef/propritor of Hallidays in West Sussex, gave a brilliant demonstration of the versatility of this wonder of the poultry world. It's been a while since I've eaten guinea fowl and it was good to be reminded of just how tasty it is.

Andy talked the group of assembled bloggers through the highlights of the bird - the simplicity with which it can be treated due to the richer than chicken flavour, low in fat it is a good source of protein particularly as the birds are raised to a high welfare standard. At the same time, with enormous skill, he demonstrated boning out and stuffing the legs with a truffled mousse, gently hot smoking the breast to be the star element of a sublimely French salad with black pudding, fried apple and toasted hazelnuts and then completed this fabulous hat trick with the balantine served atop a platter of spring vegetables with a gorgeous light cream sauce.

The following week I noticed the Ginger Pig was selling guinea fowl, not just French but label rouge from the Gers, where once we had a house, and a region well known for its fabulous poultry. Gotta be a sign! I bought one, vaguely wondering about my ability to bone and stuff the legs with mousse, but once home I set on another course. I found an English recipe of Frances Bissell's that pot roasted the bird with herbs and garlic lifted with citrus peel under the skin and finished with a cream sauce. I couldn't resist.

 Pot Roast Guinea Fowl, stuffed with herbs and garlic, with onion sauce

I do indeed mean a whole head of garlic here, but don't be afraid. The long wet cooking softens it down till it is just a deep flavour to the finished sauce.

1 free range guinea fowl
fresh herbs such as tarragon, chervl, parsley and thyme
1/2 lemon
1 head of garlic, new season if possible
55g butter
1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced
1 tbspn brandy
75ml dry white wine 
2 tbspns cream


Gently ease the skin away from the breasts and thighs of the guinea fowl, inserting your fingers between skin and flesh at the end of the bird to make a pocket between the two. Push the soft herbs under the skin as well as small tender sprigs of thyme. Pare off thin strips of lemon zest and put them into the bird's cavity, together with any extra herbs. Squeeze the lemon juice and rub it over the outside then lightly season the whole both inside and out.


Peel all the garlic and, in a deep flameproof casserole, fry them in the butter with the onion slices for a few minutes without letting them brown. Turn the guinea fowl in the hot butter till the skin is well coated then add the brandy and wine. Cover with a lid and cook in a pre-heated oven at 175C/325F/Gas 3 for about 90 minutes.


Transfer the bird, whole, to a warm serving dish and cover with foil. Pour the cooking juices through a fine sieve, crushing the remaining juice from the garlic, into a small pan and bring to the boil. Add more seasoning if necessary, cream if you like, and perhaps sharpen with a drop of lemon.


Serve with the bird.

It made a wonderful dinner that night just with mashed potatoes and rocket garnish to soak up the gravy, and cold it was the star of salad the following night. I pulled the last of the flesh from the carcass and boiled the bones for stock, then froze the lot for a final future feast from my birdy of risotto with wild mushrooms.

Honeyed Pigeon and Beetroot Salad

The weather has much improved, and though it's not exactly hot out I decided this week it was time for salad. Really wanted that fabulous melange of flavours and textures that a good salad delivers. Too cold yet for great tomatoes or cucumber I wondered about a warm salad, using tiny potatoes and earthy beetroot. Nuts of course, and garlic crumbs as I seem to have accumulated bits and pieces and ends of loaves and do love the way they fry up to gorgeous. Thought about it for a bit longer then set my heart on pigeon. No idea why - the challenge of cooking something new perhaps, and the swiftness with which they're done has a definite appeal. Robust rather than delicate I figured they would be a good match for the rest of the plate.

I had a jar of Sarah's Wonderful Blueberry Honey, a new Irish product kindly sent to me by Bord Bia. I had a hankering to use that too for St Patrick's Day, to go with potatoes and pigeon and lots of green salad - just seemed right. I made a simple walnut vinaigrette to toss the leaves then made a spectacularly wonderful dressing with the honey and coriander - seeds and root - and a touch of shallot to tease out the sweet earthiness of the beetroot and the pigeon.

Seriously good.

Warm Pigeon and Beetroot Salad

Serves 2

Don't be put off by the long list of ingredients - it really is very quick to make and assemble and you can do pretty much all of it in advance except cook the pigeon

1 or 2 small beetroots
sprig of thyme
1 tbspn cider vinegar
1 tablespoon butter

8-10 new potatoes

50g hazelnuts, lightly toasted and roughly crushed

Small head of oakleaf lettuce
Generous handful of rocket
2 tablespoons fresh coriander leaves, washed and left whole
2 tablespoons walnut oil
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice

2 rashers smoked bacon, cut into 2cm pieces
4 pigeon breasts
2 sprigs thyme
1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 shallot, finely chopped
2cm piece of fresh coriander root, washed
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon blueberry honey
1 tablespoon olive oil

50g hazelnuts

2 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs,
1 clove of crushed garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
A grind of black pepper

Put the beetroot into a large square of foil along with a sprig of thyme, the vinegar and butter and season generously before sealing up the foil. Steam or roast for about 90 minutes until the beetroot is tender. Allow to cool a little then slip the skins off and cut into large dice and put the still warm pieces into a bowl and seal with clingfilm to keep them moist.

Wash and halve the potatoes then bring to the boil in a pan of salted water and cook till tender, 10-15 minutes. Drain and set aside to cool.

Put the pigeon in a shallow dish with the thyme sprigs and the oil and allow to sit for a few minutes while you make the salad dressings.

For the green leaves, mix the walnut and olive oils with the lemon juice and season.

For the main dressing, crush the shallot, coriander seeds and root and salt with a pestle and mortar till a smooth aromatic paste is formed. Add the honey and mix well then add enough olive oil to give a slightly runny consistency. Season.


Peel and crush the clove of garlic then fry it in a small pan in the olive oil for a minute. Add the breadcrumbs and continue to fry till they are golden and fragrant, then season with pepper and remove from the heat. Drain on kitchen towel.

Gently toast the hazelnuts until they turn golden, remove from the pan and crush them slightly.

In a small pan fry the bacon on a low heat till the fat starts to rend and goes crisp. Remove from the pan and drain on kitchen paper. Turn the heat up under the same pan add the thyme sprigs for a moment then add the pigeon breasts. Cook for about 2 minutes till well seared on one side then turn them over and cook for another 2 minutes. Turn off the heat but leave the meat in the pan to rest while you assemble the salad.

Toss the leaves with the walnut vinaigrette and strew artfully across a couple of plates. Add the potatoes and drizzle with the remains of the vinaigrette. Add half the blueberry honey dressing to the beetroot, mix well and then add them to the salad. Slice the pigeon into bite size pieces. Scatter the bacon and pigeon across the bed of leaves and drizzle the rest of the honey dressing over the top.

Add the nuts and garlic crumbs and dinner is served!


Thoroughly wonderful meal for us, and I hope you all had a brilliantly enjoyable St Patrick's Day too!

Grouse

Saturday night I finally cooked my very first grouse. It was also my very first taste of this lovely bird. The man collected them from Charlie at the Ginger Pig Friday. Resisiting the temptation to cook immediately I lay the little beauties on a plate.

And tucked them into the fridge overnight.

I went through lots of suggestions and recipes and initially led astray by the idea of red wine sauce. Finally settled on simple is best. I unbaconed them, removed their hearts and livers, and dusted with flour. Sprig of thyme and a knob of butter in the cavity.



The innards I poached briefly in a small amount of chicken stock. The bacon I chopped and put into a roasting pan with a serious knob of butter. Pan into hot oven - Gas 7 - till bubbling. Add birds, drench with hot fat, roast for 10 minutes.

Baste again with hot fat, roast another ten minutes. Remove birds to a warm plate and let rest, covered with foil, for another ten minutes. Make toast. Drain most of the fat from the roasting pan and add the hearts and livers, mashing them into the bacony juices.

Dance the birdies onto plates. Spread toast with the livers and juices mash. Insert bunch of fresh washed watercress into fundament. Add side of creamed cabbage with (more) bacon. Because you can never have too much bacon.


My first ever grouse dinner is served. Brilliant thing - and a worthy meal to match my excitement at the prospect.

No idea why I waited so long.