Salt beef with french bean and red onion salad & sherry dressing

"That's the best thing I've seen come from this kitchen since I started" Sean said on Saturday.

It helps when you get to know the farmers. I called them up Monday night after getting back from a delivery to see if they had any brisket to make this - it needed to be marinaded that night in time for the weekend. There's no time to waste.

So I went over, and rather than just give me the brisket they actually marinaded it as well - with the same secret recipe they use for their amazing bacon. Vacuum packed it marinades so much faster.

Then it goes in cold water with carrots, onions, leek, parsley stalks, coriander seeds, mustard seeds, cumin seeds and peppercorns. Left in the oven between 3 and 7am it was ready just in time for a ton of bacon and sausages to go in the oven for a breakfast delivery - 24 hour kitchen.

French bean salad - french beans, red onion, artichoke, ceaser style dressing with Maille sherry vinegar.

Blurry blackberry photo of it being plated up:

Didn't finish there though. As Sean was packing up at the venue the host had spied a bit of the beef left over and asked to keep it for the next day. Must have been good!

Edit 25th February 2012

Pickled veg on 25 Feb - cauliflower, carrot, celariac, onions, okra. As this party was having french beans with the main course I changed the starter slightly - and came up with something quite good (well I thought so. Actually they must have as well - completely empty plates, always a good sign).

25 Feb pickled vegetables (as above) plate up with celariac remoulade. Only one thing missing of course - the salt beef. That was keeping warm on the stove as the guests were moving through to the dining room. Suddenly they were sitting down and I leapt into carving action. As I was also serving that party, somewhere along the line, forgot to take a photo of the finished and used all the salt beef - c'est la vie of a busy chef.......,.

Dec 2013 at Temple Guiting Manor

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Treacle tart

Emptying the camera and found this from a Sunday lunch Hannah and I cooked in February for my favourite regular customers near Stratford and their friends.

As always, a recipe turned up just in time. I had lost mine, but a couple of weeks before I was making above treacle art, along came this great recipe.

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Pan asian theme menu for a hen party in Wickwar, Gloucestershire

From one crazy busy week to the next. So after clearing up from The Underground Restaurant's outing at Bestival.... .... it was an early ferry from the Isle of Wight (was that 8am or 7:15am?) back on Tuesday, then back to London to unload. I had been back in Kilburn only 2 minutes before I got a text message from one person 'I quit....', 5 minutes later a phone call from another who'd been to the doctor & been diagnosed with tonsilitis (off for 3 days) so it was back to business as usual. Time to call in the back up troops - mum & brother. Someone else also worked with me on the Thursday till 3:30am - the latest he'd ever been up - saved!

This was one of the twelve events we pulled off that weekend - the first of two events we're cooking for this particular hen party - another one in October. This one was set up as a delivery for them to serve theselves (didn't get photos of everything - uber busy), but the next one we're cooking & serving.

It's funny how many times you meet the same people on different friend's hen parties - it's one hen party to the next for some :)

Selection of crispy spring rolls - marinated duck with vegetables, sweet and sour pork with vegetables, and chicken served with suitable dips

pictured here raw before being coated - we coded them sesame, poppy & ras el hanout

Lamb in black bean skewers Actually this photo is from 2007 - but similar thing.

Selection of sushi dishes
also from a previous sushi post - but again similar thing with avocado & vegetables & cooked prawns (see more here)

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"Buffet Style" selection with three different types of Main Courses:

Vietnamese beef salad

My take on this recipe.

Noodles with tofu and green vegetables Yes - tofu can be made to taste nice! (All in the marinading of the tofu)

Chinese Noodle Pancakes with asparagus
Thai vegetable noodles with coconut-lime prawns

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Trio of desserts
Taiwanese Pineapple Pastry (Feng Li Su)
Talk about freshness - these were made and out of the door in about 45 minutes. Amazing recipe came from here

Mango Sorbet

Thai Black Sticky Rice Pudding

Of everything my favourite using thai black sticky rice - simple things are often the best. From this recipe.

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