Pulled pork for a 60th birthday lunch near Tewkesbury

A big massive thank you for the fantastic lunch.  It was a wonderful surprise for my Husband who was celebrating his 60th Birthday.

Everyone loved the lunch, the Pulled Pork was amazing as was the Birthday dessert.

Please thank the team, they made it so special for all of us.

Linda Workman

 Everyone's made for the pulled pork! Oh and the crackling. Luckily Henry had been washing up the night before and personally tested it to make sure it was ok to serve.

Pork shoulder or leg? This time I used leg with my own blend of spicy rub - onion, tomatoes, smoked paprika, chilli, garlic, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, fennel seeds, fenugreek, onion seeds, caraway seeds, thyme, rosemary, orange zest, nutmeg etc. Pulse all of this in the processor and smother the pork leg. Some people dry roast it, I added cider - keeps slow cooked meat moister I find - and baked it open first to set the crust on top, then covered it in foil to pot roast it, then removed the foil and let the cider evaporate - about 7 - 8 hours cooking in all - soft and succulent!

The crust becomes a paste once it's cooked. I scraped it off and put it in the middle of the serving platter with the pulled pork around so you can combine it at the table (depending on whether you like spicy or not - you have to cater for all tastes, especially when there are children). It's the paste that makes it the pulled pork you have at festival stands and sandwich delis.

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Braised lamb shank in red wine with creamed potato

Elvis isn't dead! I saw him near Stratford on Avon on 31 October.

Well two of him actually, along with Diana Ross (a 1969 version), Scooby Doo, Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and a whole host of other characters. We were cooking for a fancy dress birthday party at The Boathouse on 31 October. A week later we were back at the same venue, this time cooking for an anniversary. The couple had invited all their closest friends who had been at the wedding, and requested a re-creation of their wedding breakfast menu (as cooked by another chef). As most of the events we cook for are special occasions we always like to cook whatever guests would like.

Starter:

Fish cakes with cucumber salsa

Main: (as discussed)

Lamb shank on bed of mashed potato – 1 salmon en croute

Gravy/Jus

French beans with red onion

Glazed chantenay carrots

Desert:

Apple Pie with vanilla ice cream and pouring cream

Lamb shanks were the pork belly of the late 90's - the thing that every restaurant had on their menu. They need slow moist cooking - around 3 - 4 hours minimum - till the meat is tender and almost falling from the bone, and the sauce is rich and seriously tasty. When we used to cook them at Charingworth Manor back in '97/ '98 they were £1.00 each - so the accountant was very happy too. These days however, since they became so popular they are more like £3.00 each. It had been rather too many years since I had last cooked lamb shanks, but just as I was getting ready to cook them @britishfood posted a recipe here which refreshed the memory. I did a much similar thing, though used a whole bottle of wine used carrots and celery as well, and lamb stock rather than beef. Also thickened the sauce after the shanks were cooked with a little cornflour (I use cornflour instead of beurre manie just in case of gluten/ wheat free guests).

It was another busy Saturday with 2 other events going on elsewhere, so in the rush to pack everything up I didn't pack the camera, hence the only photo I got was the apple pie just fresh from the oven after cooking (above), and the lamb shank (right) taken at 2:30am on the Sunday morning, after I had returned to base and cleared up. I always like to do one spare in case the number suddenly goes up at the last minute, a guest having something else changes their mind, or one gets dropped/ damaged. The version we had served 6 hours previously looked more spruced up of course.

If you want the perfect apple pie recipe there's a link here - the pastry is the best ever!

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Lunch near Stratford on Avon

It's always good to catch up with previous clients. Especially when they're so nice, and cooking in their home feels so relaxing. This time it was a lunch party for a select group of friends, and as luck would have it, it was a warm and sunny day.

Just in season at that point (2 weeks ago) I found some asparagus just outside Pershore and re-created the grilled asparagus and parmesan dish which I used to do a couple of years back.

Slow cooked shoulder of lamb with tabbouleh and grilled vegetables

When I cooked the whole lamb in February I really liked the way it went so well with the salads - a much lighter alternative to a traditional Sunday roast with roast potatoes etc.

The slow cooked shoulder of lamb has quickly become popular after I put it on our summer bistro and Sunday lunch menu - I cooked it again that week for 30 people for a Sunday lunch buffet. Being cooked for 6 hours means it is really soft and tender, and because it is sourced directly from the farm you know it's produced by farmers that really care about their animals - and this shows in the texture and flavour of the meat - you can't beat it.

This version was served with tabbouleh (hiding underneath the lamb) and grilled & roast vegetables - aubergine (which is a classic with lamb), courgettes, peppers, a spoon of pesto on top and a wedge of roasted butternut squash on top of that.

Summer pudding

An english classic which is a must as soon as the warmer weather comes along.

What was the verdict?

Thank you so much for cooking such a wonderful lunch yesterday. It was seasonal, fresh & absolutely delicious & was very much appreciated by our guests. After our holiday in France we will fix our entertainments for the rest of the year.

Related posts:

Slow cooked shoulder of lamb delivery

Whole roast lamb

Saddle of lamb with pearl barley risotto and artichokes

Rack of lamb with aubergine and potato gratin, roasted courgettes and a tomato and basil sauce

Lamb and apricot casserole
Irish stew and dumplings
Shepherds pie
1001 Kitchen tips #17 - Make your own lamb mince

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Delivery sunday lunch

6 hour pot roast shoulder of lamb

Shoulder of lamb, like shin beef really is one of the most tastiest cuts - if cooked long enough. After cooking in red wine, carrots (no onions for this one as one guest had an onion allergy), rosemary from the garden for 6 hours it was soft and delicious. [Edit] The photo above is from a lunch I cooked and served a couple of weeks later. The one below was a delivery sunday lunch

Signed and sealed 8:30 on Saturday morning. As we were cooking for them later at Rectory Park I was able to finish the sauce (thickening, adding mint and capers) there in between serving the main course and dessert and later left everything in their fridge for them to heat the next day.

The butcher at Home Farm had left me the bones after boning the shoulders which I added the pan - to maximise the flavour. Another party which we delivered on the way to Rectory Park were having racks of lamb, and the chine bone from the racks made a great buffer down the side of the lamb shoulders (see above) to stop them sticking to the side of the tin while they cooked.

Shown above chilled and sliced for a frozen meal

Sunday lunch menu

Related Posts

Other sunday lunch posts
Whole roast lamb

Sunday roast in the Cotswolds

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Irish stew and dumplings

Irish stew, 29 December 2008, before adding sauce on top

Although we have many dishes to tempt on our bistro menu, we do occasionally get asked for special requests, such as this one between Christmas and New Year for Irish stew and dumplings.

Made in almost the same way as my lamb and apricot. I used lamb neck rings from Home Farm. A I arrived to pick it up they were in the middle of cutting lamb dice in their butchery so Iwas able to take a few discarded lamb bones too which added even more flavour.

The lamb was seared like the beef for the beef pie, then cooked with onions, celery and canelled carrots for 3 - 4 hours in lamb stock. The advantage of cooking it on the bone is that the bones impart all their flavour to the meat, and the sauce while cooking, and on the whole, just like cooking duck or chicken on the bone, it is just much more succulent.

After that you drain the sauce and leave the lamb to cool. You can add the potatoes and dumplings in 30 minutes before the end of cooking, or, as I did, cook them afterwards so they are cooked perfectly. While the lamb meat was cooling, the sauce was split in half and returned to the boil with potatoes - one pan containing diced estima potatoes, and one pan with turned new potatoes. Once cooked these could be chilled.

The same sauce was then used to cook the suet dumplings.

When the lamb is cool enough to handle you can take the meat away from the bone, sinew and fat. These bones can then be re-boiled to make an additional stock which can be reduced and added to the finished stew.

When cooled the meat is cut into bite-size morsels, and the sauce adjusted to taste.

If you are eating straight away drop the lamb, carrots, onions, potatoes, dumplings and maybe a little chopped rosemary back in to re-heat, or if not, leave to cool in the fridge and re-heat the next day (always tastes better heated up, when the flavours have had time to develop ovenight).


Related posts:

Lamb and apricot casserole

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Slow cooked belly pork with creamy lentils

Slow cooked belly pork is a long standing dish on the Benson family repertoire - which dates back to when I was a toddler. Back then we coated belly pork slices in flour, egg and dried sage and onion stuffing mix (I liked this because you could get your fingers messy) and layered them up with onions, potatoes and gammon stock and cooked it for as long as possible.

These days however, a more sophisticated slow cooked pork belly dish is a best seller on my bistro menu. We use a whole piece of Berkshire/ Gloucester Old Spot cross pork from Home Farm on Bredon Hill. Once I have trimmed off any excess fat/ sinew, cut the pork in half, then season it with salt, pepper and a little five spice, and roll it like the lamb saddle then tie it with string, and seal it in my old roasting tin:
After the pork, I add some onions and carrots (I like using Chantenay) so you get a good caramelisation colour and flavour, and then it is braised in cider, gammon stock and a little sage from my garden and cook it on 180°C for 5 hours or more (3 - 4 hours is OK if you're in a rush, but it really doesn't get as soft as 5 hours).

You can either cut it warm, or, as shown below, cold. If you want to pre-cook it the day before, you can re-heat it with a little stock in either the microwave or oven. If you like crackling you can trim off the rind from the pork and cut it into pieces and crisp it up under the grill.

Meanwhile the braising liquor is thickened up to make the accompanying sauce.

[shown before adding onions, carrots and sauce]

Green lentils are the lentil of choice for your creamy lentils - they are the variety that stay whole when cooked. These are cooked with onion, carrot, garlic and pancetta, chicken stock and a little cream for about 15 minutes till all the moisture has been absorbed. You can then add a couple of spoons of crème fraîche. These lentils have rapidly become my favourite dish.

Related posts:

Pork tenderloin in parma ham (ballottine)
Roast pork loin
Pork curry

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