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Monthly Archive October, 2009

How to Make Pate Campagne

A recipe for a coarse country style pork pate…

Pates, terrines, rilletes et al are truly one of life’s greatest simple pleasures. A slice of a well flavoured terrine with some warm bread and a few pickles is my idea of good honest food. The attraction is in part to do with a time gone by […]

The Biggest Unknown in Rock

How to not get noticed in the rock world….

Here’s a story from a part of the world I’ve been working in recently, Cumbria, North West England. It’s a story about never knowing who might walk into your shop. It all starts with; quote: a “scruffy geezer wearing a flat cap” walks into a second hand […]

Stir Fried Vegetables with Sichuan Flavours

An easy vegetable and noodle stir-fry with a homage to Sichuan province…

Here’s a quick meat-free stir fry dish. I say meat-free because I forgot to buy some for it! Once again I had to scrape the proverbial barrel that is my bachelor refrigerator and throw a meal together. Well, I had an onion, half a […]

Fragrant Beef and Potato Curry

Perfect for the cold nights…

Here’s a winter warmer for ya! A fragrant beef curry slow cooked in spices with an equal nod to both India and Thailand….
This is one I knocked up whilst thinking about mussaman curries, most probably my favourite Thai curry. I’ve had some fantastic variations of mussaman on my travels, they are […]

The Week in Pictures

Time for another selection of random shots from the past week…..

One of my head chef’s in action, the halogen heat lamps which keep the food hot whilst being served do little for aiding good photography. The hotplate is the main area of the kitchen, the place where the chef calls the shots….

The Head Chef […]

The New Canon EOS 1D Mark 1V

The new pro spec Canon camera….

Canon have announced the upgrade to their pro series EOS 1D Mark 111 camera. This is the new version of the remarkable mark three with it’s ten frame per second burst rate which became the camera of choice for many sports and wildlife photographers.
The mark four has the same […]

Annoying

The trials and tribulations of a blogger….

Just spent thirty minutes writing a post after a very long day at work and a hard dinner service to find that as the post was being ’saved’ ready for publication my internet access timed out and I lost the lot. It’s now quater to midnight and I can […]

The Mute Swan

Watching mute swan’s…

A common sight they might be but there are few birds which stand out in quite the same way as the mute swan. Tall, white and very elegant they stand out from the crowd with their statesman like demenour, patrolling the waterways or guarding the river bank with consumate ease.
Despite being the largest […]

Fish and Cheese Combo

Red Mullet with Greek Salad….

Some of you may recall my fondness for pairing fish and meat together, well here’s fish and cheese! It’s not that radical when you consider how well a cheese sauce works with baked fish but this particular one features uncooked cheese…..
I love Greek Salad, individually the ingredients appeal to me; tangy […]

The Importance of Good Service

The art of serving a customer…

As the chef in me has matured over the years so has the understanding of how important good service is to the business as a whole. This may seem obvious to those of you of a certain age and background but there are thousands of tunnel visioned chefs out there […]