It is really quite some time since we have been cooking on a Mini Big Green Egg in mainland Europe.  It was rather good taking up the challenge again! The grill size is just over 20cm but with a little ingenuity there is so much you can cook on it and it fits easily in the boot of a car!

We were cooking enough for 6 people and so we were careful (more…)

What a delightful way to end the year ………….!  We have just seen the announcement of a new award for“Smoked Fine Food”. LUXlife magazine has just published our success in their “Food and Drink Awards 2024” – the award is for the excellence of “Smoked Fine Food” in terms of the support we offer on an international basis to our followers, and those just looking for ideas, both in terms of recipes and cooking techniques! ……… more details to follow!!

Pies certainly have a very long culinary history. The first written reference to the word pie appears in 1301 (1). There remains some slight controversy of what constitutes a pie. Pastry all round or is a pastry top enough to qualify?. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a pie as: a baked dish of fruit , meat, fish or vegetables, covered with pastry (or a similar substance) and frequently also having a base and sides of pastry (2).  So I think we are safe to assume a pastry top qualifies, especially if it is not one of those ‘precooked’ lids that is popped onto a casserole in a pot in too many pubs!!

This is a recipe from Chef Tom Kerridge who still has the only pub in the UK with two Michelin stars. This is a very fine recipe (3). The only substantial modifications we made was to cook the filling over charcoal in the Big Green Egg, with a little chestnut smoke.  We also replaced the suet top with a puff pastry one (as we had  some to hand).

I liked that the recipe used a weighed amount of flour to toss the meat in before cooking.  Any excess was used later as a general thickener for the sauce, so nothing left to chance!  The flour was seasoned with salt and pepper.  The cubed venison was tossed in the flour then seared in a handleless pan cooked over direct heat on the BGE.

The meat was browned on all sides and then set aside.  It is important not to crowd the pan and so this was done about a third at a time.  The remaining flour was reserved.

The shallots were diced as was the carrot and celery. The carrots were cut into approximately half centimetre cubes (larger than for a soffrito) and the celery cut to a similar size.  The garlic was finely chopped.

After the last of the venison was set aside we added a further slurp of the oil. The shallots and carrots were added to the pan and cooked for around 5 minutes.

The celery and garlic were then added and cooked for a further 4 minutes until lightly coloured.  At this stage we were building flavours and so the tomato purée was stirred through and left to cook for 2 minutes before adding the crushed juniper berries.  Finally the flour that had been left in the bowl from coating the venison was added and stirred for a couple of minutes before pouring in the wine to bring it up to a simmer.  This was then cooked to reduce the volume by half and evaporate the alcohol.  This mix was then transferred to the Dutch oven together with the venison.  The stock was used to deglaze the original pan and the stock too was transferred to the Dutch oven. The herbs were tied together with a piece of string and also dropped in.

The Big Green Egg was then reset for indirect cooking by adding the platesetter and the temperature was reduced to around 130C.  The casserole was reintroduced without the lid and cooked gently for around 3hrs until the venison was meltingly tender.

At this point the herbs were removed and the prunes, chestnuts and parsley were added and stirred through the mix.

The casserole was divided into 4 pie dishes filling almost to the top.  These were placed on a tray and set aside to cool before putting into the fridge to really chill down (they were going to be used on the following day).

The Kerridge recipe then went on to make suet pastry, which is lovely.  As we had some left over puff pastry that I had made for another cook we decided to use that. The edge of the pie dish was egg washed and circles of pastry put on top to carefully seal the pie dish. Bits of excess pastry were then removed from round the edge of the dish allowing around 1cm to be stuck to the side of the dish.

To finish some pastry leaves were shaped from the pastry offcuts. These were popped on the top and then the whole pastry top was egg washed. Finally a little salt was sprinkled on the top.  We elected not to put a steam hole into the lid (which would normally be done) and this didn’t seem to cause any problem at all.

When ready to cook they were put into an oven at around 180C for around 30-40 mins until the pie mix was well up to temperature (above 74C) and the top was a lovely golden colour.

They were left to rest for 3-4 mins before serving.  It is probably easier to control the browning of the pastry in a domestic oven – but that or the Big Green Egg will both do the job well!!

We served them with triple cooked chips and broccoli which worked really well but there are so many potential options!  You can see from the last picture that the pastry was lovely and flaky and the pies were really well filled!

……………………… all in all a really rewarding outcome!!

References

Time to get my personal prejudices on the table – I have never enjoyed watching Gordon Ramsay on the television – but I really do like some of his recipes!  There you are – all out in the open!  This recipe is a perfect example!  We have modified it very slightly to cook on the Big Green Egg.  Additionally, as I really don’t think it benefits at all from the addition of chilli flakes, these have been omitted from our cook.  The recipe below includes chilli as on option.  We have included a link to Ramsay’s original recipe and YouTube video (1).

I really love working with these secondary cuts of meat that need to be cooked slowly and in doing so can take on such bold flavours.  In addition they are often relatively inexpensive – this is a real case in point.  The recipe was based round a 750g rolled lamb breast.  It was picked up at our local supermarket reduced from £4.70 to £2.29!! A true bargain – though even at full price it would have been excellent value!

The first thing to do was unroll the piece so that we could add additional flavours to the inside of the joint.  The roll had been made up from 2 separate pieces, again illustrating the versatility of this cut.
It was laid out on a cutting board and seasoned generously with salt on both sides. This was followed by the dried oregano, lemon zest and anchovies.  The ingredients for the dish gave it a very Provençal feel. From our experience chilli is not used to any great extent in Provence and so we omitted the chilli flakes that were suggested in the original recipe.

So time to re-roll the meat.  We used some small elastic poultry bands to hold it together.  These work so well on small cuts of meat like this as well as on poultry!  If you don’t have any to hand, then a conventional butcher’s string tie at each end and one in the middle would be fine.

We did the first part of the cook in one of our handless Tefal pans.  This could be done directly on the BGE or on a conventional hob.  The pan was heated and some olive oil added.  The lamb was then rolled around the pan until it took on some good colours all over. As the outer layer shrinks a little as it cooks, the inside seems to squeeze out of the middle as in the picture.  Don’t worry about this as it will largely correct itself in the second part of the cook.  Whilst the meat browned, the onions were cut into large chunks (as it was going to be a slow cook and we don’t want  them to disappear into the cooking sauce). The meat was set aside, a little more oil was added, and the onion put straight into the same pan to fry with the partially crushed garlic.  The capers were then popped in with the onions and cooked through, followed by a little more lemon zest.  The pan was then deglazed with white wine and a good squeeze of lemon juice.  The final addition was the tinned tomatoes which were gently crushed and stirred into the mix.  The rolled lamb was then placed on top and we were ready to go.

If cooking indoors this needs to be covered with a lid or a foil top to prevent too much liquid loss. It can then be placed in the oven on 170C for 2 – 2.5 hours. We were cooking in the Big Green Egg which had been set up for indirect cooking at around 140C.  Cooking in the EGG this way we usually leave the dish uncovered.  Very occasionally the liquid may need to be topped up a little with some water.

At this temperature I would expect to cook for 3-4 hours until the meat core temperature was between 88-93C.  At this point the meat would be very tender but not quite at the stage you might have for pulled lamb.  It is however perfect for slicing.

After about 3 hours – the lamb was lifted out and the sauce stirred to check on the consistency.  It really didn’t need any more liquid so the lamb was popped back in and left to complete the cook.

When the core was around 90C the meat was removed and allowed to rest prior to carving.   At this point the final consistency of the sauce can be checked.

When ready to serve, carefully remove the bands or butchers string and carve into generous slices.  These can be served directly on the sauce.  We also added some French beans from the garden – well it is a Provençal dish!!

We will be doing it again ……………

………………… do give it a go!!

References (1) Gordon Ramsay’s Braised Stuffed Lamb’s Breast – https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VaWYE8dvDGk

There can be a real joy in revisiting recipes – and this one is a case in point.  It is a few years since we first cooked this dish but it really is worth coming back to!  You can find the original cook here – or you can jump straight to the recipe below.

Coming back to this particular cook made us realise that our relationship with food has subtly changed over the last few years.  I noticed as (more…)

A recent raid on our freezer turned up a 1Kg pack of pig cheeks that we had completely forgotten about.  Well time to correct this omission immediately!  I really think that pig cheeks are an overlooked resource so often just turned into pork mince.  They are also often difficult to get hold of, even from small artisan butchers – simply as each pig only has two!  Wanting to do something a little different with them we found an inspiring recipe from Javier De La Hormaza, the owner of Basco Fine Foods.

We were not going to use black Iberian pigs known as Cerdo Ibérico, which I am sure are stunning, but we did follow a very similar recipe modified slightly for cooking on the Big Green Egg.  The initial prep was quite conventional and done indoors on the hob this time before (more…)

Kippers are a speciality of the North East of England though other areas of the UK (rightly) claim them as their own regional food too!  A cured gutted herring is split ‘butterfly fashion’ and then cold smoked, usually over oak.  Traditionally eaten in the UK as a breakfast dish – they were also eaten for ‘high tea’ or as a supper dish in Britain largely before WW2.

We are yet to cold smoke our own herrings to make kippers – but one day!  These kippers were smoked at the Galloway Smokehouse in South Western Scotland and were just first class!

A really simple breakfast cook.  We set up our MiniMax BGE for direct cooking for these.  The BGE was left to stabilise at around 180C.  The kippers were popped into one of our handleless Tefal Ingenio pans with a little butter and gently cooked over the direct heat for around 5 minutes until the backbone started to lift.

They could have simply been left for a further minute or so to finish on the BGE – but we had our Gozney Roccbox pizza oven set up next to us.  We simply used it as a salamander to finish them off with some top heat for a minute or so.

Which ever way this is a dish everyone should have a go at!  It cooks so well on the BGE – the other advantage in my case is that it is Wife Friendly in that it doesn’t leave kippers smells around the house all day!

As a beautiful product …………….

……….it   partners well with a little lemon, oregano and some brown bread and butter!

A very quick post!  This dish is based on an original dish by Theo Randall, we modified it to make Fettuchini with courgettes and salmon. That recipe can be found here

We had been cold smoking different white fish and for this dish we used some smoked halibut. It is an absolutly perfect way of using some of the trimmings – For this we used the thin tail sections.  There doesn’t seem to be a large tradition of cooking with smoked fish in Italy. In this dish, the subtlety of the smoked halibut makes it a perfect dish.  We combined it with cassarecci pasta ……………………

……………………..it works so well, do give its a go!

Footnote – this should work well with smoked haddock too!

Travelling back from a week away in Scotland we called at a fantastic farm shop.  Kilnford Farm Shop sits on the outskirts of Dumfries, just off the A75.  There was so much we could have chosen, but the 28 day matured T-bone joint seemed to have our name written all over it! In the UK, the T-Bone is also know as a Porterhouse steak but in Italy we would have been thinking Bistecca alla Fiorentina.

Bistecca alla Fiorentina comes from the loin, below the ribcage.  If the cut contains both the sirloin and the fillet then it has been taken from just below the ribs.  As you move closer to the rump the cut just contains the Sirloin.  Outside Tuscany a Bistecca alla Fiorentina normally contains the fillet.  In Tuscany however,  and particularly in Florence you may be offered bistecca nel filetto (with the fillet) or bistecca nella costola (without the fillet) (ref 1).

We asked for a piece around 3cm thick which delivered around 1Kg of the finest Galloway Beef! And our piece was most certainly bistecca nel filetto!

Classically, Bistecca alla Fiorentina comes from the enormous Chianina cattle that have been farmed in the  Chiana Valley in Tuscany for more than 2000 years.  Our beef was reared in Scotland, in Galloway by the owner of the farm shop.  These Belted Galloway cattle are much smaller and really suited to the area in which they are reared.  They are allowed to grow slowly on rough pasture and only receive a limited amount of concentrated cereal feed as they reach maturity to encourage marbling in the meat (2). It is a real privilege to be able to enjoy meat produced in such a low input and environmentally sustainable system here in the UK.

Traditionally, a Bistecca alla Fiorentina is cooked very close to the wood embers from room temperature.  There should be little or no seasoning and it is said that it should only be turned once after 3-5 minutes.  It is then finished standing upright on the bone for between 5-7 minutes.

We have previously cooked our version of Bistecca alla Fiorentina using a reverse sear technique.  This time too we were not completely following the Tuscan tradition to the letter either.  The purpose of cooking closer to the embers is to develop an aromatic crust with the Maillard reaction. We were going to do the same but using our stainless steel plancha.  This encourages an even colour over the whole steak rather than just on the stripped grill marks, as described here. (My personal view is that neat grill marks represents chef vanity rather than cooking excellence!!!! But please feel free to differ!)).

The BGE was set for direct cooking with the Plancha at around 230C dome temperature.  The steak had been warmed to room temperature, dried (to enhance the Maillard reaction) and very lightly salted just before putting onto the heat.  As we were on a plancha rather than using open heat, the sub-dermal fat layer on the edge of the steak was first coloured by direct contact with the hot plancha as in the first picture.  This quickly releases some fat which may ignite.  Be carful not to burn the fat layer.

The flat sides of the steak were then exposed to the heat of the plancha.  Although I tried to resist the temptation to turn the meat more than once, this is much less important when you are not trying to realign  grill marks! We turned this every couple of minutes.

As soon as a good colour has been developed on both sides of the steak the meat was stood vertically on the T-bone itself.  This is said to make sure that any traces of blood (actually myoglobin) have been eliminated from the bone.  In reality though the bone also acts as a thermal shield whilst the rest of the meat roasts for 5-7 mins.  It is worth taking a measure of the core temperature to make sure this is not done for too long.

Traditionally the core of a Bistecca alla Fiorentina is served between blue and rare – and certainly only warm rather than cooked!  Our preference though is to serve it a little warmer and so just rare.

Our core temperature after 5 minutes standing was still only in the high 20s Centigrade.  Whilst the temperature would rise by a few degrees during resting we decided to give it a conventional oven finish.  Our oven of choice here would clearly be the BGE.  Sitting the steak on a bed of Rosemary in a cold handleless pan and putting this back on the BGE would safely allow 5 mins or so more roasting without over cooking.  This was a technique we first came across on a Theo Randall cooking course.

After around 5 mins the core temperature had risen to around 45C and was ready to rest.  It was taken out of the BGE and wrapped in foil and covered with a tea towel to rest and keep warm.  Whilst resting some parboiled potatoes were roasted off in the BGE using the residual heat.

Once fully rested, the meat was a joy to carve.  Carved at right angles to the bone separating the sirloin and the fillet.  This is often just served by itself on a sharing cutting board with some lemon, the fillet and the sirloin surrounding T-bone.

We chose to serve it plated.  Separating the sirloin and the fillet we served with the roasted potatoes and a mix of French beans and semidried tomatoes in oil.

This was a truly fabulous dish using carefully reared and butchered meat from the UK, every bit as good as any we have had in Tuscany.  This beautiful dish was cooked using the principals if not the absolutely identical techniques used for a classical Bistecca alla Fiorentina.  Whether you see this as an homage to the classical Bistecca alla Fiorentina, or as a great way to cook some wonderful Scottish steak really doesn’t matter!  It was a great dish ………………

………………which ever way you see it do give it a go!!

References

1, https://www.theflorentine.net/2016/06/21/exactly-bistecca-alla-fiorentina/

2, https://www.kilnford.co.uk/visit/butchers

Walking through the garden I suddenly realised that our Sage was growing precociously.  And precocious sage means one thing – Saltimbocca!  What could be better than Saltimbocca?…….. Saltimbocca with extra crispy sage!

Classic Saltimbocca alla Romana is not surprisingly thought of as a Roman dish.  Despite this it was probably  invented in Brescia the home of prosciutto crudo. Saltimbocca alla Romana is made with veal escalope with sage leaves wrapped in prosciutto crudo.  A rough translation of the name is ‘jump in the mouth’ and this dish packs enough punch to do just that.

The recipe here is a variation on this classic Saltimbocca and we have used partridge breast as a substitute for the veal.  As long as you are not a ‘culinary purist’ this works really well; and works even better served with crispy fried sage.

The partridge breasts are a good modest size for this dish but needed to be flattened slightly. They were covered in clingfilm and gently bashed with a rolling pin until less than 1cm thick.  The clingfilm was discarded. A couple of freshly picked sage leaves (stem removed) were placed onto the breast which was then wrapped in 2 pieces of prosciutto.  There was no need to season the breast as the prosciutto acts as the seasoning. Make sure the edges of the prosciutto are neatly tucked out of the way and you are ready to go!

The BGE was set up for direct cooking.  We used our handleless Tefal Ingenio frying pan and heated it over a medium heat (around 140-150C dome temperature). Once the pan was warm we added 1 tbsp butter and a drizzle of oil.  The 2 wrapped escalopes were popped in the pan and fried on each side for about 2 minutes until beautifully coloured.

When cooking the first side we added some more sage leaves and fried them till crispy.  As we were ready to turn over the escalopes the sage leaves were nicely fried, and were carefully lifted onto the cooked side of the escalope whilst the other side was cooked. The meat and accompanying sage leaves were removed to a warm plate and covered with foil to keep warm.

The pan was put back on the heat and the remaining butter was added along with the masala. This was simmered for a minute to produce a lovely simple glossy sauce.

This can be served simply with a salad, polenta or fried potatoes and crusty bread.

On this occasion we added some cauliflower topped with finely shredded sun-dried tomatoes and sautéed asparagus.  The asparagus was simply pan fried in a little oil for a minute or 2.  The dish was finished off with a little fresh lemon ……………..

………………… and those wonderfully crisp sage leaves!

We are enormously fortunate in having a good friend whose family has access to venison but doesn’t like it!  We therefore help out when we can!  This week we were given a piece of venison – I suspect from a roe deer.  It was a very strange looking piece of meat which I wished I had photographed. It looked like a very lean meat wrapped in a number of layers of  belly.  A little rummaging suggested it may be loin (still with its silver skin intact.)  This was indeed wrapped in what I think must have been the whole belly.  Now there are a few problems here.  Firstly the belly would benefit from a long slow cook.  The loin in contrast really needs to be served pink.  On top of that before cooking the loin the silver skin needs to be removed.  If it is not removed then it will contract when cooked and leave a very chewy piece of meat.  While it would have probably been possible to do the whole piece as a slow braise/roast it really wouldn’t have done any of it justice.

There was only one thing for it – the filleting knife was made ready.  The 2 loin pieces , what Americans refer to as ‘backstop’ were teased away from the breast meat.  This resulted in 2 loins each with a substantial silver skin attached. This is relatively simple to remove and makes such a difference. Slide the filleting knife between the silverskin and the muscle – and then remove the silver skin in exactly the same way as you would fish skin from a fillet of fish.  Just keep the blade close to the cutting board.  This gave 2 lovely loin joints which just needed a little neatening to finish them. There was then around 500g of belly.  The simplest thing to have done would have been to mince it and use it for sausages or burgers.  This time however we chose to remove some of the more obvious connective tissues and cut it into chunks to make a simple venison ragù (more later).

Each loin yielded 3 x 150g pieces.  So if cooking 2 portions remove a third and save for later. Cooking a single 300g piece is easier to handle in the pan and reduces the waste as the very ends are discarded (chef’s perks) for serving.  It can be worth rolling the loin in clingfilm to make a large sausage shape as this gives a nice even shape for cooking and serving. This can be kept in the fridge until needed

We had found some porcini mushrooms in the autumn and had dried these at home. For us porcini are a rare find on a woodland walk so we had dried and preserved every last bit of them! We had kept the ‘neatening trimmings’ that most people discard separate.  So we took around 1tbsp of this and ground it into a powder with a pestle and morter.  We added the salt we would use for seasoning the loin to the porcini powder. When ready to cook we removed the loin from the fridge. (We tend not to leave it to come to room temperature as we are trying to delay the heating of the core for long enough to colour the outside of the meat).  The loin was dusted with the porcini salt mix and rolled until completely covered (the very ends were ignored as these would not be served).

The seasoned venison was then seared in one of our Tefal Ingenio pans heated directly.  The trick here is to get the pan hot then add a little oil to moderate the temperature.  Once the venison is put in the pan it needs to be left on each side long enough to colour. At which point it needs to be moved around in the pan so that an even browning occurs on all sides.  And we are trying to do this without the heat penetrating too far into the meat.   When the venison was well coloured (core temperature was less than 40C) we set the BGE back to indirect cooking adding a cold platesetter and closed off the vents.  The venison was placed back into the BGE allowing the indirect heat to bring the core temperature up to around 52C.  This only took a few minutes. The venison was then rested whilst the vegetables were finished.

The vegetables were plated and the very ends of the venison loin were removed (chef’s perks) and the 300g loin cut into 4 pieces (2 large and 2 smaller).

Removing the very ends allowed the loin to be served vertically.  This shows the contrast between the core, cooked medium and pink, and the well coloured exterior surfaces.  These were popped into the convenient spaces left for them on the plate. On this occasion we served with charred sticky fennel based on our slow roasted caramelised fennel recipe, sautéed leeks and chard, and pan roasted parsnip.

Finally, we served with a little shallot and redcurrant sauce enriched with the venison cooking juices.  Whatever vegetables you chose to serve the venison with…………

…………….. this is a lovely way to cook this beautiful loin!

We took quite a little time to decide what to cook on the day of the Coronation of King Charles III.   Coronation Chicken entered the catering lexicon 70 years previously at the Coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953.  I suspect that our Coronation Goat may not have quite the same impact on the culinary world!  It did turn out to be a very special and versatile dish though!

This is the 3rd of a series of goat dishes we have published.  We are cooking some wonderful Goat Kid from the lovely people at Moat Goats.  Our first one was – Braised Goat Kid Shoulder and Chickpea Ragù.   The second was for a very inexpensive but beautiful goat ragù.

Today’s cook though utilised a 2Kg shoulder joint which we thought would be perfect for a slow cooked fuss free dish.
We had all sorts of ideas of the flavour profile that might work with the dish.  In the end we went for a lightly spiced dish braised in pomegranate juice and finished with a pomegranate glaze.

We adapted a recipe from the BBC Good Food website for lamb shoulder with a pomegranate glaze.  The basis of the dish was to marinade the meat in a lightly spiced aromatic paste for 24-48 hours, braise the shoulder slowly on a trivot of onions in pomegranate juice,  and finally turn the braising liquid into a sticky glaze.

Making the paste for the marinade was very straightforward.  The garlic, cinnamon, cumin, oregano and lemon (all the lemon minus the pips) in a blender with 1 tsp salt and 2 tsp black pepper. This was blended until smooth.  As we were cooking goat which is much less fatty than lamb we also added 2tbsp of olive oil to the marinade. The paste was massaged into both sides of the shoulder which was then covered with foil and left in the roasting dish for 24 hours (you can leave if for upto 48 hours).  This was left in the fridge until the morning of the cook.

So on the day of the Coronation we lit our large Big Green Egg and set it up for indirect cooking at around 120C (the original recipe cooked the lamb at 160C for 4 hours).  When there is an opportunity for long slow cooking it is very much what I would opt for.  It also allowed us to disappear for a big chunk of the day to watch the coronation knowing the meat would be ready for us in the evening! The quartered onions were used as a trivet under the goat and 750mls of pomegranate juice was poured over the top as the cooking started.  We managed to find some pure pomegranate juice (unsweetened) with a little difficulty as most are apparently sweetened with artificial sweetener – these may be OK too!  The original recipe suggested covering with foil which I would definitely do in a conventional oven. We only did here for the second half of the cook after around 4 hours at the stage you can see in the picture on the left.

After a further 4 hours the core temperature of the meat had reached 90C.  It was time to remove the foil and carefully pour the meaty pomegranate juices from the roasting dish. These were added to a saucepan with the honey.  This was allowed to bubble on the hob for around 30 minutes to reduce and thicken the glaze.  Meanwhile the goat was re-covered with the foil and allowed to continue cooking.

Once the pomegranate glaze had reduced and thickened, the foil was removed from the meat and some of the glaze poured over it – spread with a brush. This was done every few minutes until all the glaze was used and the meat was left to cook for a further 30 mins, uncovered, until the glaze is bubbling and just starting to char. The meat and the sticky onion sauce was then removed. The meat was covered with foil and a couple of tea towels and left to rest (we left it for around an hour).

Whilst the goat was resting we mixed most of the pomegranate seeds into the yogurt together with the mint leaves.

The goat was shredded. mixed with the sticky onions and served on a bed of rocket and wild garlic (we should have added the rest of the pomegranate seeds to the meat at this stage but forgot until we were plating!!  The whole dish worked perfectly with the home made flat bread we made as the meat was resting!

We will definitely be coming back to this dish………………..

……. do give it a go!

Footnotes:

1. When we cook lamb for pulling we normally stop cooking at a core temperature of around 90C. With our first experience of cooking goat this way I would be tempted to allow it to cook to between 93-95 if you want it to really shred rather than pull into chunks
2. The spicing of this dish was lovely and gentle.  I suspect it would easily take a little more, perhaps some sumac and some cardamon without distorting the overall balance

We have been fortunate enough to be gifted roe deer haunches on more than one occasion.  We have cooked them as a whole haunch, and we have tunnelled boned out the haunch and roasted them that way. (more…)

It We need to start with two small confessions.  Firstly, we have not found an authentic Italian recipe for this dish (yet)! And secondly, we have taken longer to name the dish than it did to cook and eat it!!  Lets start with how we came to make the dish and you will get some idea why the naming took some time!!

After a lot of advice from Meg at Moat Goats we bought a half Goat Kid from them in early 2023.  We challenged ourselves to cook each of the pieces that arrived without venturing into any form of curried goat (this time at least).  We have already cooked a (more…)

There are no authentic ‘Venison Bourguignon’ recipes in the same way as there are no authentic  ‘Vegetable Bourguignon’.  In food terms Bourguignon is a classic beef dish.  That has not stopped us playing with ideas for a similar tasting, but vegetarian dish.  We first published our original Vegetable Bourguignon in March 2021 and our amendments to the recipe in October 2022.  These are dishes we cook regularly and are also very popular with others on the website.  So when we wanted to try a venison based Bourguignon it seemed the ideal place to start.

We have no intention of ever becoming vegetarian, but we have been reducing our overall meat consumption over the last few years.  We have added a range of vegetarian and plants-centric dishes to our cooking repertoire over the same time.  We refer to some of the dishes on the site as plant-centric because although they are predominantly vegetable based they may not be entirely vegetarian.  For instance they may be based on a meat stock rather than vegetable stock, or may be largely vegetable based, with just a little meat included.  This is the way we decided to go with this Venison Bourguignon. So we have built it on our Vegetable Bourguignon, but included a little venison and pork lardon in the recipe.  We toyed with the idea of calling it Vegetarian Bourguignon with Venison but didn’t want to offend anyone who was vegetarian.

As this dish was only going to use a relatively small proportion of meat we were going to include all the steps we had previously taken to add texture to the vegetarian dish.  We therefore kept  the swede and the celeriac and kept the root vegetable chunks much larger than you might normally.  We also kept our addition of dried wild mushrooms including porcini as these offer a different texture from the fresh mushrooms.   The first change we made though was to use beef stock rather than the porcini stock cubes we had used previously, though they would have still worked well.

The first thing to do before anything else was to soak the dried mushrooms.  Ideally, we now soak them for 2-3 hours before using them.  If that isn’t possible we try to make sure they are soaked for more than the 30mins we used to do it for!

We lit the Big Green Egg and prepared the vegetables as we let it come to a steady temperature of around 180C.  We try and use round shallots for this dish and just peel them and leave whole,  the carrots celeriac and swede were cut into large chunky pieces and the garlic was coarsely chopped.  The button /chestnut mushrooms were left whole if not too large or were halved or quartered.  We had some other fresh woodland mushrooms so these were included too.   Once the EGG was up to temperature we added the fresh mushrooms to a dry sauté pan and began to toast them until they took on a little colour and then finished them in a little olive oil and set them to oneside for later. We did the same with the dehydrated mushrooms and set those aside but kept them separate.  Save the mushroom liquor.

The rest of the vegetables were then added to the sauté pan with some more oil and cooked until they too started to colour but we tried to avoid them softening (unlike in the original recipe). The vegetables were seasoned and transferred to the dutch oven which would be used for most of the rest of the cook.  Before dispensing with the sauté pan the lardon were lightly coloured and set to one side and then the venison was browned off and these left in the warm pan whilst we set the BGE to indirect cooking and we switched to the Dutch oven.

We added the tomato puree to the partially cooked vegetables.  They were then tumbled so that all vegetables were coated with the puree.  This was then left to cook for another 5 minutes or so.  Once at temperature the tomato puree undergoes a Maillard reaction (the same as meat does when roasted) adding to the overall intensity of the tastes. The browned venison was then added followed by
the lardon

Then it was a matter of adding back the venison and the rehydrated mushroom  and the red wine.  Then once the alcohol had been driven off we added the stock, the reserved mushroom liquor, Tamari and thyme.

By this time the steady temperature of the BGE was at around 140C and so the Bourguignon could be left to cook for the next hour.  We could then see how the meat and the vegetables were cooking.  It needs to be long enough for the venison to be soft and tender whilst the vegetables still have a good and reasonably firm texture.  We left it cooking for another 30 minutes, adjusted the seasoning and added the rest of the mushrooms the had been previously set aside.

By this time the sauce had darkened and thickened but we still finished it by thickening with a very small amount of cornflour (about 1tsp).

The Venison Bourguignon was served on this occasion with a baked potato cooked at the same time in the BGE together with some of our spiced red cabbage and some French beans…………..

………………….. but it works well with rice, mashed potato or couscous too!

We have been wanting to experiment with goat for some years and have simply never got round to it.  That changed when we came across Moat Goats on a UK cookery programme with the ‘Hairy Bikers’. They are based in Pembrokeshire in Wales and have Boer Goats bred for their meat rather than for milk.  Meg has been really helpful with the ordering and offering advice. Based on that, our first purchase has been a half Goat Kid, the plan being that it has both ‘quick cook’ pieces, such as a rack but also slow cook joints like the shoulder (more later).

Buying a half animal you do get just about everything.  This is great as (more…)

This quintessential Roman dish is a perfect example of Roman food history.  This particular recipe dates from 1887 and is an iconic dish, but one probably few people know about, and certainly very few outside Italy.  In Rome, until late in the 20th century, prestigious cuts of meat were reserved for the rich.  The butchers (vaccinari), slaughter house workers and lower classes of Rome ate the off cuts and the offal.  These were referred to as the ‘quinto quarto’ (the fifth quarter) – see below.  It was the inventiveness of (more…)

We had never had the slightest  problem with the original BGE dual function metal regulator cap so I wasn’t immediately excited when the new rEGGulator Vent Cap was announced a few years ago now.  The only real issue I had ever had was occasionally leaving it on the BGE and that could cause a little rust to develop.  The other problem that had been reported was the settings of the regulator changing when the EGG was opened and closed.  Not a problem if you realised it had happened as it was easy to correct, but an issue if it went unnoticed!!

The rEGGulator was designed to address these issues (more…)

We have quite a number of successful ways of cooking lamb leg.  Our regular ‘go to’;  Greek lamb and roast potatoes  – is a particular favourite, but this Easter we wanted to try something slightly different.  We had came across a recipe from the delightful Marcus Wareing – from his book ‘Marcus at Home’.  He opens by saying “you really shouldn’t rush the cooking of a whole leg of lamb, and the secret to getting tender meat that’s infused with plenty of flavour is to baste frequently.” Music to my ears!!!

There is nothing revolutionary about this recipe, but it is simple, considered and perfectly balanced.  The final texture and taste of the meat, and the contrast with the sherry infused meat juices is exceptional!  The technique for the slow cooking is as you might expect, around 4hrs – so not ‘low and slow’ but cooked at 150C (the advice in the recipe for a conventional oven was 160C or 140C if with a fan.   So we allowed a good 5 hours so that we were under no pressure when it came to serving.

The Big Green Egg was set up in indirect mode and allowed to come to temperature (150C) and stabilise.  The lamb was sat on a trivet of quartered onions. It was covered in a paste made from rosemary, thyme, garlic, lemon zest, paprika, sea salt and olive oil.  The lamb was put into the BGE and cooked for an initial 45 minutes. After which time the lamb was gently taking on a little colour and releasing juices into the roasting dish.

We poured 250ml of sweet sherry over the meat being careful not to disturb the paste then set it back on its cooking journey for another 3 hours.  Other than basting the meat with the mix of sherry and meat juices every 45 minutes it could just be left to its own devices. (If the mix of sherry and meat juices starts too dry up just add a little water too it to rehydrate it – if cooking on the Minimax where the dish is close to the platesetter add 100ml water before the sherry)

After 3 hours and 45 minutes the core temperature of the lamb was at 86C and we were around 90 minutes away from eating.

So the meat was fully cooked but to a core temperature less than one would use if you were cooking pulled meat. We simply closed off the vents on the Egg, and allowed the residual heat to do a little more cooking, and then as it cooled further to act as a warming drawer as the meat was allowed to rest.

When the rest of the meal was ready, the lamb was carved and plated.  Some of the lamb fat/oil was poured off the cooking liquor and the jus was served in a small jug. We could have been very Chefy and passed the jus – but the little fragments of meat, herbs and onion were far too good to discard!!

I have to say the combination of flavours of the jus and the taste and textures of the lamb we’re quite exceptional…………..

  ………….indeed this may have been the best lamb dish I have ever eaten!

Footnote: whilst the combination of the gently soft meat and the sherry enriched jus was exceptional when served hot – the lamb, served cold the following day was every bit as good

Attributions: This recipe comes from Marcus Wareing’s “Marcus at Home” ISBN 978-0-000-818447-6.  The only modifications are those undertaken to cook in a Big Green Egg rather than a conventional oven.

We are continuing to plan our way through the diversity and breadth of the history of ragù in Italy.  Some time ago we published our first ragù recipe from that master of Italian food;  Theo Randall (you can find that recipe here) – if you have not come across Theo – check him out here.

This dish has a lot of similarities to that recipe of Theo’s in that it is not Bolognese in style (more…)

This dish is based on a dish from Angela Hartnett and Cafe Murano.  The original meal was described as “slowly braised lamb neck served with a light chickpea ragù.  The vegetables from the lamb braising liquor adding to the richness of the base of the ragù”. The original recipe also added smoked paprika and fennel seeds, before simmering with tomatoes and chickpeas.  We did not include those here but I am sure they would work well.

Trying to reproduce something similar, we started  by soaking dried chickpeas overnight the following morning these were slowly simmered until nearly cooked (you could use tinned chickpeas to avoid this step).  The cooking proper started with a small handful of lardon in one of our Tefal Ingenio handless pans.  The lardon were gently cooked to release some of their fat.  To this was added a simple soffritto of onion, carrot, celery and a chopped garlic clove.  A little olive oil was added and the vegetables coloured.

Once well coloured the soffritto was set aside into the casserole that we were using for the majority of the cook.  Back in the first pan, over a medium high heat, we then added the lamb neck fillets which had been generously seasoned with salt and pepper.  These were rotated in the pan until all the surfaces were beautifully coloured.
The lamb was then added to the soffritto in the casserole.  The pan was deglazed with the red wine so as not to waste any of the tastes built up in the Tefal pan.  It was heated until all the alcohol had been boiled off.  The wine was then added to the casserole along with one tin of tomatoes, gently crushed, and a little tomato purée.  Although not absolutly necessary we also added a little concentrated chicken stock at this point.  The Big Green Egg was then reconfigured to an indirect setting and the temperature stabilised at around 140C.  The lamb was slowly braised for around 2 hours until it began to soften.

The meat was removed from the braising liquid and the cooked chickpeas were stirred through the ragù.  This chickpea ragù was brought back to temperature and a sprig of thyme was added together with the lamb.  This was then slowly cooked for a further hour or so.  At this point everything was ready to eat – but we find the taste of these dishes is so much better the following day.  Therefore, the BGE was then shut down and the whole thing was left overnight to cool (night-time temperature 4C).

The following day the ragù was reheated (meat above 70C). There were about 4 portions with perhaps a little ragù left over.

We found that a 360g ragù plus 2 lamb fillets worked well for 2 of us.  The additional ragù was put into a dish and was used later with some Trofie pasta to make a light lunch.

The lamb ragù works well on its own as shown here (which is how it would be eaten in Italy) or with a simple green salad

Do give this a go ……………..

………………….. it is a great dish!

Variations: Although not yet tried, I suspect the addiction of fennel seeds and a little smoked paprika would work well as in the original description

We have really enjoyed exploring pasta dishes that are some distance away from those based on meat ragù although these will probably always be a bedrock of our Big Green Egg cooking.  This recipe was inspired by a dish of Theo Randall’s that we had cooked previously.  In that dish, sea bass and courgette paired beautifully with Tagliatelle, Basil and Capers.  This summer we have had a real glut of courgettes (zucchini) from the 4 plants we had grown in the garden.  We also had the tail of a nice side of salmon that we had prepared for a different dish earlier in the week.  So a similar but slightly different dish!

In reality, there is no need to cook this dish outside on the Big Green Egg it cooks beautifully on a conventional stove.   But when the sun is shining ……………… why not!!    When we do this we still usually cook the pasta on a hob!   This is a great dish for using the tail end of a side of salmon after using the prime cuts for other dishes.

The courgettes were cute into rounds about 1cm thick and then these were cut into batons – usually three to a disc.  The BGE was set up for direct cooking at around 180C.  The olive oil was heated in one of our Tefal Ingenio pans. (These work so well on the BGE as well as on the Hob as the handles can simply be clipped off as needed). The sliced garlic was added to the oil and was cooked for around 1 minute.  The courgettes were then added and cooked for 5 minutes, tossing them a few times until they were a light golden colour.  The salmon tail had been skinned and cut into strips.

These were added to the pan followed by  the basil and capers and a little seasoning. The fish was cooked through for 2-3 minutes only and the pan was removed from the heat.  If you cook any longer the fish will break up.

This dish calls out for a long pasta that will hold a sauce.  Theo’s original recipe used freshly made tagliatelle – which works really well.  In this occasion we chose to use a good quality dried fettuccini which needed to be cooked for around 8 minutes.  We therefore set the timer for 7 minutes and put it on when we added the fish to the courgettes.

At 7 minutes the fettuccini was still a little undercooked and so this is a perfect time to add it to the courgettes and the salmon and bring the whole pan back to temperature over the heat.  Cooking the pasta in the sauce for he last couple of minutes infuses the sauce flavour into the pasta.  Possibly even more importantly, the pasta and a little pasta water, adds a silkiness to the sauce.  It may be necessary to add a little more pasta water if the sauce needs to be loosened slightly.  If cooking on the BGE this last stage needs to be done with the lid open.

The pasta is ready to serve onto warm plates.  Italians would not usually chose to add Parmesan cheese to this dish and in reality it doesn’t need it!!

……………….do give it a go!

Inspired by a recipe for Tagliatelle with Sea Bass, Zucchini, basal and Capers:- by Theo Randall in his book ‘Pasta’ ISBN: 9780091929008

We first published this recipe about 18 months ago – you can find it here.  Since then we have regularly dipped in to this dish.  In so many ways I am always surprised when eating it that there is no meat!!!  It certainly doesn’t feel as though anything is missing!!   I think this is perhaps because of the range of textures we have now managed to include.  The vegetables are left large but of different sizes and shapes – but importantly cut very chunky!   We also use both fresh and dried mushrooms that give quite different textures.  Widening the variety of textures makes it much easier for meat eaters, like us, to enjoy these plant centric dishes without feeling we are missing anything!

So over the last 18 months we have made just a couple of small adjustments.  The recipe below includes all these changes.

The first change was soaking the dried mushrooms for much longer than we used to.  If you can soak them for 2-3 hours that is perfect, but certainly more than the 30 mins that we used to use. This is especially effective in a relatively short ‘slow cook’ such as this one.

The second change we made was adding the sautéed fresh mushrooms towards the end of the cook – perhaps 20 minutes before removing from the heat rather than at the start of the cook.  That helps to keep the textures more varied still.

The third change is only necessary if the sauce is still too fluid towards the end of the cook.  At this stage, mix a flat teaspoon of cornflour with cold water and stir into the sauce.  Cook for another 10 mins or so to make sure the cornflour has done its thickening job.  This very slight thickening just slows the speed at which the sauce flows.  This seems to enhance the taste of the sauce, probably as it “hangs around” in the moths a little longer!

So what is next ……………..

……………… just remove the thyme sprigs from the cook………………and you are ready to go!!

As much as anything this is a ‘reminder to self’!  There are so many wonderful vegetables available in the middle of summer that with or without a recipe we should grab and use them.  Here is a perfect example of that – we had a few extra tomatoes and French beans from the garden.  We had also bought a few more peppers than normal as they had been on offer so they were abundant too.  So this ‘Grab some Veg’ dish (more…)

The more we look at some of the worlds great foods the more we are finding that so many have been born out of poverty, food shortage and simply the need to survive the perils of winter, looking forward to a new spring.  So we have the Andouillettes of France, the tripes and the offal dishes of Rome and the glories of cured pork culminating in perhaps the best known prosciutto di Parma – but there are so many more!!

We are living in a very uncertain world.  Global warming, a pandemic, and now a superpower leader waging a brutal war in Europe.  All this has made us reflect, step back, and take a breath.  It is easy to feel powerless in these circumstances and in some ways we are.  Equally though we can all do something!  Doing something positive is good for each of us.  We have been looking harder at reducing food waste and also looking to be inspired by some of these ‘less sought after’ food elements.  On reflection I think we should be exploring these foods so much more!

We recently published a great recipe for Italian Lamb Kidney with Anchovy and Lemon .   In this same vein this recipe is based on a Sicilian lamb ragù which we had first from those rather nice people at ‘Pasta Evangelists’ based in London.  They are a generous company and shared the recipe for the ragù in their excellent cook book.  We have taken a slight sideways step from this recipe in that we used lamb heart rather than lamb shoulder for the dish.  We felt this was very much in the spirit of using items from what is referred to in Roman cuisine as the “quint quarto” or the “fifth quarter”.  The “quint quarto” comprise the ‘less noble’ parts of the animal often referred to as the offal.

Before we go any further – this dish is fabulous made using lamb shoulder.  If you are open to some new ideas – it is every bit as good, though slightly different using lamb’s heart as in this recipe.  If you are not happy with the idea of using heart (at a fraction of the price) then use shoulder!
You will be pleased that you have – it is a great dish – but with lamb’s heart it is also fabulous!

This recipe used 2 lamb hearts which cost just over £1.50 in the UK 2022.  The major vessels were chopped off, the top and the heart muscle sliced lengthways to reveal the heart valves which were also removed. The meat is incredibly lean as you can see from the picture on the right .  The muscle was then chopped into 1cm cubes and browned in a hot frying  pan over direct heat with a little olive oil.  The chopped mushrooms were added to the pan and fried off for a couple of minutes more.  These were then put to one side.

In the same pan the onion was added and cooked till it started to become translucent.  Stir in the garlic and continue cooking. After one minute the carrot and celery was then added and the sofrito cooked until it took on a little colour.  If the mixture becomes a little dry add a splash of the stock.

Add the red wine and deglaze the pan.  Allow the alcohol to boil off then add the stock and the tomatoes and simmer over medium direct heat for 10 minutes or so.   At this point we transferred this mix to a small casserole dish and added back the meat and the mushrooms. The final addition was the sugar, mint, rosemary bay and thyme. The Big Green Egg was then set up for indirect cooking and the casserole was left without a lid to cook for around 2-2.5 hrs at 120-30C.  Initially the sauce will look very wet and a little incipid but over the period of the slow cooking it will become thicker, darker and richer.  Ultimately finishing with a super rich sauce which sticks beautifully to the pasta.  As this is not truly a regional dish we played with some different pasta types.  It went well with pappardelle, our usual Tuscan standby as you can see above.  It would work well with rigatoni reflecting the dishes Sicilian origin – but we finally settled on casarecce – again Sicilian in origin and a perfect pairing for the lovely dish.

Which ever way you chose to serve it, a little pangrattato adds a lovely additional texture……………….

………………………do give it a go soon!!

We are absolutely delighted to discover that we have just received the “Best Outdoor Cooking Advisory Resource 2022″ award from LuxLifeMagazine in their 2022 Restaurant and Bar Awards.  This comes ‘hot on the back’ of our award last year for the “Cooking Blog of the Year – UK  2021” award by LuxLife Magazine in their 2021 Restaurant and Bar Awards.

It is wonderful to think that “Smoked Fine Food” has been nominated for these awards, especially as it has been our readers who have done this………. being nominated 2 years on the run is very special – winning 2 years on the run feels quite exceptional!

Our website has gone from strength to strength especially as more and more  people have changed how they operate in the last 2 years!  The site started simply as a place for us to keep some working notes on recipes in development and two record recipes once we were happy with them.  It seems that this approach has proved to be extremely popular perhaps as it is a different approach from other sites.  We are delighted to have found that so many people seem to find it valuable.  We are getting thousands and thousands of visitors – and whilst we expected this to fall as the world slowly seems to be coming out of a pandemic, as yet we seem too be getting as many visitors  and requests for advice.

Hopefully, at least in richer nations, we have passed the worse of the pandemic.  Time will tell, but we do hope so.  The last 2 years has involved us all changing our lifestyles to protect others.  One of the unexpected bonuses that has come out of this is that so many people have found a fresh joy in preparing and trying new foods. Outdoor cooking has been such a big part of this and if we have done a little to help in that area we are delighted.  We continue to cook outside all year round – embracing the British weather!! Plant-based cooking is also figuring more in our diet, and as we get our head round things that work well, will appear more on the website too.

We hope you enjoy your own cooking journeys in the rest of 2022.  Great food does not have to be complicated so share those cooking pleasures whenever you can.  Please do feel free to get in touch through the website or directly by email or social media if we can be of any help with advice or simply sharing our own experiences.

All that is left to do then is to thank you, our readers, for the nomination for this 2022 award and also to thank you for all the support we have received that has got us to  this point!

……………… enjoy your cooking and do share your successes!!

Best wishes

Mark and Jackie

Link to the 2022 Award on the LuxLife Website here

And for the second year running ………………!  We have just learned that we have been recognised by LUXlife in their “Restaurant and Bar Awards 2022” – the award is for the support we offer to others and particularly the excellence of our on-line contribution in terms of recipes and cooking techniques on this “Smoked Fine Food” website ……… more details to follow!!

We have had fantastic fun this year cooking new dishes with some great products.  We have also spent a lot of time trying to reduce our food waste by making sure that we have some plans (at least some idea) what we might do with any left overs from a cook.  Taking this one stage further we have used one of the food ideas that the Italians are famed for.  They often simply cook some extra food to make sure they have leftovers to use for another dish.  They call these ‘Avanzi’ – which although it translates as ‘leftover’ sounds so much more affirmative!!

Here is the perfect example of a dish which you can really only make with ‘Avanzi’ – in this case cooked turkey breast (though chicken or other white meats would work just as well) with chestnuts.  They just require the planning to make sure plenty is cooking in advance to make sure there is enough ready for this second dish!

This particular recipe is a reworking of a Jamie Oliver recipe for leftover leek and turkey pie.  We have kept the leek and turkey elements but substituted pasta and a sumptuous crispy cheesy topping for the pastry.  This therefore gives you a silky rich leek sauce with generous chunks of turkey and chestnuts with go to form the basis of a ‘pasta bake’.  Rather than doing the pasta in layers as in a lasagna, it is just stirred through the sauce before topping the dish off with cheese and breadcrumbs.  Other than cooking the pasta (which is best done on a conventional hob) this dish can be cooked in the BGE or a domestic oven.  I favour the BGE for the hint of smoke it offers the dish.  The BGE also retains the moisture so much more than a domestic oven which I think works well for this dish.

The first thing to do was to cook and chill around 130g of pasta, the recipe works well with penne or fusilli, but any short pasta will work.  The pasta is cooked ‘al dente’ then chilled as the final part of the cooking will occur in the sauce.

Traditionally the leek sauce would be started off by frying some pancetta/lardons in a pan and then adding the leeks.  In the spirit of ‘Avanzi’ we used some sausage meat we had in the fridge after making stuffing balls to have with the turkey the day before – but equally some of those stuffing balls broken up would have done just as well.  The first stage was cooked over direct heat.  Once in the pan and coloured, 500g of chopped leeks were added with some thyme leaves (fresh or dried will work) and some olive oil. These were sautéed at a medium heat for a few minutes.  The heat was then turned down by adding the platesetter and converting to indirect cooking.  The leek mix was seasoned and covered to cook for around 30 minutes.  We checked and stirred the dish every  5-10 mins to make sure nothing was sticking or taking on too much colour.

This whole process reduces the bulk of the leeks by about two thirds.  At this point we added the turkey torn into chunks, and some cooked chestnuts left over from the roast turkey dish the night before (fresh vac-pac chestnuts would be fine too if you have no left overs).  As the turkey and chestnuts were warmed through in the sauté pan, a tablespoon of cornflour was stirred into some cold turkey stock. (This was made from the bones of the turkey on this occasion but a stock cube or a ‘stock pot’ would work).  The stock/cornflour mix was then stirred into the pan and was kept gently moving until it began to thicken at which point the nearly cooked chilled pasta was added to the mix.
It is important to make sure it is all well covered in the sauce.  You may need to add a little more stock if there is not enough sauce to go round all the pasta.  Everything should be coated coated with the sauce, but it is just as important that everything it is not immersed by the sauce!

And now the work is nearly done!  The temperature of the BGE was brought up to around 170C.  The mix was put into an ovenproof roasting dish. Some breadcrumbs were added, followed immediately by the torn or sliced mozzarella.  Then for a crispy top, more breadcrumbs and the parmesan.
Finishing took around 30mins until the core temp came to around 85-90C and the top was nicely coloured.  Sometimes getting a nicely coloured top in the EGG  is a little difficult.  If this is the case don’t despair!  Two minutes under a domestic grill (or in a pizza oven if you have one to hand) will sort that out very easily!!

Allow to cool for 10 mins ……………..

……………perfect with a fresh salad!!

The first thing we bought from our local butcher after the first batch of pandemic ‘lockdowns’ was a good piece of belly pork.  This is something we have never really managed to find in our supermarket deliveries as they are just too thin and lean!  True ‘low and slow’ recipes render out so much of that wonderful pork fat out of the pork.  It does leave enough thought to give fantastic taste and texture that only fat layers can provide.

For this cook we went to our ‘go to’ pork belly recipe here.  If going to cook and eat on the same day then just follow the recipe on the link.  For this cook though the cook was going to be in two phases.  The first a standard slow cook on the EGG.  Before the second phase, the finishing and production of a lovely crispy crackling we planned to portion up the pork, vacuum pack, and freeze until needed.  Finishing was done portion by portion when needed.  The steps are exactly the same but with a pause between the first and second part of the cook.  We were cooking a 1.6Kg piece which should yield 8 portions of deliciously rich pork.

Rather than give all the cooking details that are there in the link – here is a brief summary.  Our recipe has grown out of Nic William’s recipe for belly pork.  The dry skin was scored and rubbed with Maldon salt.  It was then massaged with olive oil and more salt added.  The Big Green Egg was set up for indirect cooking at 120-30C with the platesetter in the feet up position.   We used the expander system so the pork could sit on the top layer and drip quietly into a roasting pan on the second layer away from the hot platesetter. For the first hour the meat was placed with the skin up and then the pork was turned over with the skin down for the rest of the slow cook.  It would take around 6-8 hours for the pork to reach an internal temperature of  90+C.  We took the belly pork off at this stage.

Once removed from the BGE the piece was allowed to cool in the fridge overnight and was portioned and vacuums packed in the morning.  At this stage the fat in the skin has been rendered but is anything but crispy!!

To finish off the pork – defrost the number of portions required and place on a roasting tray in a domestic fan oven at around 200C.   Once the meat is back up to a suitable core temp (above 70C) add some top grill heat to your oven.  This crisps the skin very quickly – so don’t let it burn (yes we have learnt the hard way!).

There are so many ways to serve this delicious piece of meat.  On this occasion we served with baked potatoes cooked on the Big Green Egg using Nic Williams excellent recipe.   The other star in this dish was our spiced red cabbage.  The spicing and the residual balsamic recipe off sets the richness of the pork perfectly.  It works with so many other dishes too – and the recipe can be found here.

Do give these dishes a go at some point …………….

………….. they are worth coming back to!!

Below is a copy of the linked recipe for crispy pork belly