The fifth Quarter – an offal cookbook by Anissa Helou. ISBN 1-904573-21-5

This is a very interesting book. The very first recipe is: Foie Gras au Sel and the second one is Foie Gras en papillote.It then goes on to cover receipes including Sheep’s lungs in tomato sauce, Haggis ……..finishing off with Fish Head curry.

The one recipe that I want to share with you (modified) is Jamaican Oxtail in Red Wine with Bird’s eye chillies:

2-3 table spoons of coconut oil.  If unobtainable, use normal oil and add coconut cream/milk etc

750g Oxtail

1+ Birds eye chilli (depending on how hot you want this to be or omit the chili)

1 red bell pepper and one green bell pepper and half a head of garlic, one large piece of cinnanmon

one onion and one carrot

120ml tomato ketchup

120ml red wine

 

Brown oxtail – best way is roast it in a hot over (200 degrees C) for 20 minutes to get rid of the excess fat and brown at the same time.

Next, fry the oxtail with the chillies (split and chopped up and de-seeded. Leave seeds in if you want the “heat”). Now add the sliced onion and diced carrot. Stir fry for about a minute then add the garlic in one lump, sliced  peppers, cinnanmon and cloves. Stirr for another minute, add tomato ketchup and wine. Simmer for 2-3 hours until the oxtail meat is ready to fall off the bone (i.e. you can fork the meat off the bone). Check for taste half way through and add salt and pepper as necessary. Add water if the sauce become too dry during the cooking. You should end up with a thick clinging sauce. Enjoy with boiled rice or mashed potato. If you have a liquidy stew, add fresh bread crumbs a table spoon at a time until the sauce is thick. For this, let it boil/simmer for a minute everytime before you add another spoonful as it takes a few second for the thickening to work.

I know, oxtail is not offal but its in the book! Please remember to was your hands after handling chillies and remove the cinnanmon and cloves before serving.

Next is: Hotten than Hell by Jane Butel. ISBN 1-55788-096-4

I had great expectations when I first came across this but alas less than half the receipes are hot, the rest are spicy. Here is an interesting one:

Sassy southern crumg-coated bass.

Sea Bass or any boneless white fish fillets

1 cup of milk

1 pint of salt water (2 teaspoon of salt)

Half cup of cornmeal or polenta mixed with half cup of flour and half teaspoon of garlic salt and half teaspoon of cayenne pepper(add more if you want to make it “devilish”.

Tops of a bunch of green salad onions.

Cut fish into small fillets about size of a “fish finger”. Leave to saok in the salt water for 30 minutes. Now dip fish in milk and coat in the flour polenta mixture (flour, polenta, thinly sliced (across) green onion tops, cayenne pepper, garlic salt).  Press the fish into the mixture to make sure that it takes up the coating.

Dewep fry the fish at approx 170 degrees C until golden brown. Serve.

The third book is: The book of Miso by William Shurtleff and Akiko Aopyagi. ISBN 0-89815-097-3

Most of you would have tried Miso Soup in a Japanese Restaurant but did you knoiw that it is a health food and is aslo a high protein seasoning. You can use it as stock, marinade, dressing and in deserts. the book starts by explaining the benefits of miso (it may prevent cancer …..), how its made and the different varieties.

You can get miso in Japanes and Chinese supermarkets and certain health food shops. Clearspring does a “brown” miso that you can buy in supermarkets.

Here is an interesting vegetable recipe : Green Bean and onions in spicy miso sauce.

1 clove of minced garlic

half an onion – sliced thinly

20 green beans – topped and tailed.

one and half table spoons of red/brown  miso dissolved in half cup of water the add one teaspoon of cornflour.

one table sppon of sake

Parboil beans for 3 minutes, rinse under cold water. Saute garlic and onions in a table spoon of oil for about 30 seconds. Add green beans, stir fry for a minute. Then add the rest of the ingredients : miso, sake. Heat at high heat for one minute, stirring all the time. The sauce will thicken. Serve. There is no need to add salt as Miso is quite salty. If you like, add qtr teaspoon of salt with the beans.

Eddie

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Address: Ermin Street, Stockcross (B4000), RG20 8LG

Telephone number: 01488 608 131

Website: N/A

Date of visit:  4 January 2010

Approximate cost per head:  Less than £10

Comments on wine list/beer: West Berkshire Brewery’s first tied pub, £2.90 per pint.

Summary:

This is a Local CAMRA Pub of the year.

Upon entry, you will notice that the place is full of large tables and settees. There are 2 rooms both heated by cast iron coal fires.

There were only 4 of us at 1pm on a Monday – a few more came later – and the fire was on the inadequate side re heating the rooms. Ok its cold!

The menu was chalked up on the blackboard and it covered, rib eye steaks, pies, Vegetarian option, cod and chips etc. Most of it was priced at £6.95.

I and my guest had the game pie with cranberry mash as recommended by another diner. When it came, it was a raised pie (individual) on a big pile of mash. I couldn’t tell what sort of meat it was/were  as it was “large mince”.

The mash potato was interesting. I am not sure that cranberries works with the mash. On the whole the meal was adequate and average.

The beers were excellent.

Apparently, they have “live” music some evenings.

Eddie

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Address: The Green, West Tilbury, Essex RM18 8TU

Telephone number: 01375843081

Website: N/A

Date of visit:  2 January 2009

Approximate cost per head: £10

Comments on wine list/beer: Small list, good value. Beer is Green King

Summary:

The Tilbury Passenger Terminal is where you embark on a cruise. The really big ships embark at Southampton.

I was taking friends to the terminal. We arrived at 12 and was looking to go somewhere for lunch as non passengers were not allowed in the terminal. However, the area is a complete desert.

We came in from the A13, drove up to the terminal and carried on, passed the terminal entrance, passed the power station when we wondered where we had to go to find a pub.

Luckily, we sighted a church and as expected, there was a pub on the village green with a car park outside.

On the outside, the pub looked a bit like a run down east end pub but we went in.

The pub is divided into two halves – the bar or the restaurant. The restaurant is appropriated called the Green.

The menu is very interesting consisting of various chicken dishes including Chicken Kiev, you can also have steaks and there was a list of seafood dishes – mainly fried. You can also get chicken pie or steak and kidney pudding all priced around £7.  On the next page, there was an Indian Menu, with various combination of  samosas, nans, and various curries etc and finally, a children’s menu. We had the cod, chips & peas and goujons of plaice (twice). Amazingly, the food was really good, you get a little side salad of crispy lettuce leaves, tomatoes and onions. The chips were fat chips expertly cooked and the plaice goujons and cod in batter were not greasy. I have not eaten a good plain meal at this sort of prices in the UK for a very long time. The food on the tables next to us also looked good.

Wine was priced at £3.45 a glass but you can have the house chardonnay for £9.50 a bottle. On top of this, clean loos.

Eddie

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Address: We three Loggerheads, Ruthin Road, Loggerhead , Denbigshire CH7 5LH

Telephone number: 01352 810337

Website: N/A

Date of visit: 31 December  2009

Approximate cost per head: Less than £15

Comments on wine list/beer: Small wine list, fairly cheap. Various beers including local brew (Rev James @ £2.55 a pint

Summary:

The pub is in the Vale of Clwyd.

This is a walker’s pub. Whilst we were eating, over 40 walkers turned up for a pre-booked lunch. However, please note: no dogs are allowed in the pub. To be honest, as we drove towards the pub gingerly in a 4X4 because the roads were dreadful, there were hill walkers everywhere in the sub zero conditions with at least a foot of snow! I was going to walk to the pub but “chickened out”.

The pub is divided into a smallish bar area – selling drinks and snacks and a huge dining room that is about the size of a village hall.

The menu is very extensive which covers most of the non gastropub favourites – burgers, steak, fish and chips, chilli con carne etc. The portions are good size and nearly all main courses are under £10. However, this is a place for quantity, value and not quality. Its also where most people drown their food in gallons of tomato ketchup.

My fish and chips were a bit over cooked – the batter was brown, dry and not golden brown and the chips were also over cooked. The tartar sauce was definitely not home made as it was very sharp. It tasted of Heinz salad cream with gherkins chopped in. We also had one more fish and chips (also over cooked – well it’s the same batch – and a Chinese roast pork (a poor imitation of Char Sui?). I noticed that most of the climbers had burgers and they were all well done and looked a bit dry.

On the other hand, beer is good and the Spanish Rioja at £14.95 was a real find.

The pub is sited on the main road between A494 between Mold and Ruthin.

If you are in the area, a real find ( approx a mile west) is the Rhesgoed Isa Cottage guest house. All rooms are en-suite and at £35 a night including B&B, is really good value for money. The rooms are all well proportioned – I had a settee in mine as well as a log burning stove and a TV.  My room was approx. twice the size of a normal Travelodge room.

Rhesgoed Isa Cottage : LLanbedr Dyffryn Clwyd, Nr Ruthin LL15 1YE (also on the  A494 between Mold and Ruthin)

Tel: 01824 704 733

Eddie

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