What's for Dinner?

I have no idea about Aussie fish and chips, but almost all that I've tried in NZ are abso-fucking-lutely awful. I mean seriously, horribly bad - McCains pre-cut chips, fish that is at best tasteless, and at worst mushy and old, undercooked, slimey batter. It's the batter that gets me, is it really that hard to properly batter and cook a piece of fish?

I can't say that you get much choice of fish either, it's normally just 'fish' which means red cod or lemon shark, neither of which are any good. You can sometimes get tarakihi which is okay, but nothing special. If you're lucky you can get blue cod, but it's expensive as fuck.

The only truly good fish and chips I've had in NZ were from Cooper's Catch in Kaikoura, who seem to have worked out how batter works.

Having said this I have been spoiled for fish and chips. I haven't much nice to say about Lincolnshire, but the fish and chips are on point. Plenty of choice of fish: cod, skate, rock salmon and haddock, which is nicer than cod and always the choice of the more discerning grease-eater. Most fish and chips in the UK are shit, frankly.

Can't say I ever seen a Chinese-run chippy in the UK. Most in Lincolnshire seem to be run by Greek Cypriots or Brits. Most in NZ are Chinese-run though.

Anyway, last night I had a Margherita pizza from the proper Italian place near the beach. Best pizza I've had in a long, long time.

I'm not very good with roast dinner type stuff but managed a cracker tonight.
Made a lamb stock yesterday over about 6 hours on the slow cooker using lamb bones, lamb breast and celeriac, onion, carrot, bay leaf and pepper corns.
Today, again on the slow cooker, cooked lamb leg with the usual garlic and rosemary inserts on a bed of onions, carrots and rosemary and a mix of the lamb stock and red wine.
Cooked it for hours then put it in the oven at the end for some Maillard action, reduced the remaining liquid to make a gravy with the addition of some blackcurrant jam and served with some roasted carrots, potatoes and sweet potatoes. It was fucking awesome.
the spectacular Brunello alongside helped no end.
Lots of time to make it but amazingly I didn't arse it up and it was delicious.




I did add more gravy

If it moved, you'd definitely shit yourself.

Just the gravy from the cooking which was delicious, probably from making such a good lamb stock.
Not something I usually do well at all.
It's basically this recipe

Thanks but no thanks for making me an even fatter cunt.
I'll be drowning in beurre blanc and sabayon.

I'm just joking, looks good, clearly a proper Frenchman as one of the biggest sections in the index is for sweetbread
Tonight's dish could indeed have done with some greens, probably broccoli would have been best with lamb.

A legendary one. Co-founder of La Gavroche

HP?

Yeah, is it his son that used to be on Masterchef?

I have some boneless chicken thighs I need to use up today, anyone got any marinade recipes? Probably just going to bake them, it’s shitty weather and can’t be arsed to fire up the grill just for a few thighs. Might sous vide and sear them off for some color on the stovetop though.

My default lazy comfort option is a Chinese 5-spice rub, a lazier version of something like this
thewoksoflife.com/easy-five-spice-baked-chicken/
May be a nice change?

For six thighs, I'd go:

Salt, cumin, paprika, cayenne, coriander and oregano.

A teaspoon of each except 0.5x of salt and 2x paprika. I tend to mix them all I to a paste and a tablespoon of olive oil, then coat the chicken.

It's best overnight, obvs, but give it half an hour then sear them. If you're feeling fancy, you can then braise them in a sauce for tinga chicken but they're good as they are.

Simple but nice.

2 chicken kievs, 2 hash browns, all doused in balasamic vinear.