Showing posts with label offal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label offal. Show all posts

Friday, 28 November 2008

Real Food


This has been a long time coming - apologies for the delay. I'm very blessed in that my local happens to provide good beer and real food. The Queen's Head at Bulwick, Northants has been mentioned in these pages before but I'm beginning to feel guilty about not sharing it widely enough. Run by the enthusiastic Geoff and Angela, this pub keeps coming up trumps and has the Diplo seal of approval after many years sampling.
The beer is taken very seriously and it is such a pleasure to be able to enjoy a village pub that is happy to present a fantastic pint without making you feel you ought to be ordering a la carte for a dozen. So many of our pubs have gone foody and really don't understand the point of beer. Somehow this place manages both in real style. A little sample menu is attached - these two on separate occasions, but the offal dish a few weeks ago was absolutely out of this world, Geoff kills and butchers his own game which has to be a good thing. The pig's ear dish I had as a starter tonight, and was brilliant. I'm not a food writer but am happy to say I don't need to be - where on earth can you find such serious goodness AND with a pint of Brewsters Decadence to wash it all down ? - (that and a good Chilean Syrah/Cabernet).
MORE OFFAL !

Saturday, 16 February 2008

And On The 273rd Day ....


13 weeks salt-cured and a further 6 months maturing. F E Coales and Son know a lot about curing meat. One of the few local butchers still slaughtering on the premises, they close Mondays for the killing, making Tuesday the top day for offal shopping. The younger generation have taken a keen interest and Mr Coales' son is big on cured and dried meets. I first came across this salt-cured full middle bacon several years ago and have never found anything to match it for flavour. The resulting fried bread from the cook-up is quite the most delicious in the world. I was taught a top Northern tip for fried bread once - sprinkle the slab of bread with a little water before dropping into hot bacon fat for a perfect "slice". Happy breakfast. MORE FAT !