Knife Skills

Knife Skillsis collaborative book from Charlie Trotter, Lyn Hall, and Michelin-starred chefs Marcus Wareing and Shaun Hill. Together they tell you everything you need to know about buying and using kitchen knives, with clear instructions and step-by-step photographs.

This extensive book covers every aspect of kitchen knives, from their anatomy and history through to how to choose one, safety, storage and caring for them. It even covers other cutting accessories, such as graters, peelers and slicers. The part on using knives is vast and covers general handling techniques and has sections on specific skills for vegetables; fish & shellfish; meat, poultry & game; doughs & desserts; and fruit. Butchering is also covered, such as how to joint a chicken and butterflying a leg of lamb, as is how to carve different meats.

This is a fantastic book, and one that I know I’ll refer to time and again. It’s the essential guide to kitchen knives and skills, and a must-have for keen cooks.

In the Bag: Cooking the Month of April

Did you see the round up over at Real Epicurean of March's 'In the Bag' entries? There were some fabulous dishes made with one of my favourite vegetables, purple sprouting broccoli. It's still in the peak of its season, so why not grab some and head over to the round-up for some inspiration?

We've got a nice early start for this month's bag, and it's full of seasonal produce I just know you're going to love. Take a look:

Jersey Royal Potatoes
Watercress
Feta cheese

I'm already thinking of the possibilites. Now that the clocks have changed and the weather's getting brighter these fresh ingredients will marry together perfectly for spring.

As usual, to enter you just need to create a dish using these ingredients, then post about it on your blog or website and drop me an email. Enjoy!

Entry Details
Send an email with ‘In the Bag in the subject line to asliceofcherrypie AT yahoo DOT co DOT uk by Wednesday 30th April with the following information:

• your name
• a link to your post
• the name of your dish
• a picture of your dish

Rules
Here are the loose rules - but ultimately remember the objective is to have fun whilst highlighting seasonal food:

1. Participants should attempt to use all the ingredients 'in the bag' for that particular month, but may leave one out if they prefer. The dish should be based around the seasonal ingredient, with it acting as a central ingredient.

2. Participants can include any "extra" ingredients that they see fit.

3. Entries should include a link back to the host for that month, and the post should be tagged "In the Bag".

4. Entries can be written any time during the month, as long as the URL is emailed to that month's host before the closing date.

5. Particpants from outside of the UK are most welcome to join in and substitute an item from their own local seasonal produce if necessary.

'In The Bag' is a food event run monthly by 'A Slice of Cherry Pie' and 'Real Epicurean'.

The Frogs’ Legs Social Experiment

(Image: Michigan J. Frog’ from the Warner Brothers’ film ‘One Froggy Evening’ )

What would happen if you took a family group of 8 people, of two generations and varying culinary tastes, and presented them with a plate of frogs’ legs? Well that’s exactly what I found out on Friday night when dining at a Chinese restaurant to celebrate Rob’s birthday with our families.

Now for any social experiment such as this you need to understand the group you’re dealing with. So let me give you a brief overview. I’d say we’re a fairly typical British family in terms of our culinary tastes, the older generation being generally more reserved than the younger, liking their meat well cooked and ingredients they know and trust. But we all share a love of good food and an interest in how it’s sourced, and we all enjoy home cooking to varying degrees.

We were in high spirits on Friday night and looking forward to a Chinese feast. When it came to ordering Rob’s brother discretely pointed out to the waitress the dish that was to become the talking point of the evening, without telling the rest of the group. He later confided in me that he’d ordered salt and pepper frogs legs (cooked in batter) to see who’d be up for trying them. He’d seen them on menus before but never ordered them himself and this time thought “why not, this is a good opportunity for us all to try them, and it should be interesting to see who will be brave enough”. Indeed.

As for me I was intrigued and looking forward to trying something new. But then I’d frequented this restaurant a lot over the years and never actually ordered the frogs’ legs either. “Why?” I pondered. If I’m honest it’s probably for the same reason as many other people; the thought of an amphibian making the jump, if you’ll forgive the pun, from my garden to my plate isn’t particularly appealing. I wouldn’t go as far as to say I find it repulsive, but I can understand why someone may. Frogs’ legs are very much a delicacy, and an unusual one here in the UK. As they aren’t an everyday ingredient for the British they do bring with them the fear of the unknown, particularly as they’re small, green and live with the creepy crawlies. And from a taste perspective I never really had high expectations of them to be honest; there’s hardly any meat on them for a start. But all this aside, here was an opportunity to try them and I was going to fully embrace it. But what of the others?

When the dish arrived and was announced a buzz of surprised laughter and chatter broke out, among the odd rather horrified expression. As expected the initial reaction of the majority when offered them was “eew, no!” and a shrinking into the chair. There was an adamant no from my Father in law. He was clearly going to be the tough cookie of the group; would we be able to break him? You would perhaps expect the Mums to be particularly squeamish but surprisingly Mum in law was the first to reach for a leg. Everyone around the table waited with baited breath for the first reaction. And it was a good one! Hurrah, success! This seemed to encourage everyone and with a little more peer pressure one by one everyone - yes, even Father in law - tried a leg, with the exception of my Sister in law who only eats fish and chicken meat.

The general consensus was that they were very nice and tasted like chicken, but milder in flavour. Interestingly, Nilmandra from Soy and Pepper told me that they are referred to as 田鸡 (tian ji) in Mandarin, which literally translates as 'field chicken'. I thought the texture was a little like squid and I also found them very tasty, although very much a nibble as there’s so little meat on them.

The most interesting, and funniest, subject in this experiment was my Mum’s partner, who ate the frogs' legs with no qualms whatsoever, and yet he was probably the most reserved eater of the group. How interesting, had he completely thrown caution to the wind in wild abandonment? I leant in as I asked with surprise "did you like it?" "oh yes, very nice" came the enthusiastic reply. I was momentarily stunned, until my Mum pursued "so you liked the frogs legs then?" "The what?" came the horrified reply. Oh dear. Unfortunately he’s a little hard of hearing and had completely missed what they actually were. Now here’s the really interesting part. Despite enjoying them he said he would never eat them again. He said he actually got a funny feeling in his tummy when he found out what they were and readily admitted it was completely psychological. And I think that’s not an untypical reaction.

As my brother in law later reflected, the reluctance in our group to try the frogs’ legs seemed to be based on irrational fear and it was only really the peer pressure that made people let down their defenses and try them. I really do think that it’s just that they’re out of the norm for us Brits; frogs aren’t something we’re used to seeing, or thinking about, as food.

But they do have their fans, as I found out when I asked the 'A Slice of Cherry Pie' forum members if they’d tried them. I’ll leave you with some of their comments.

Lasagna, Salad and Garlic Bread

Over the bank holiday weekend I invited our parents over for dinner. I wanted a relaxed, family meal and what better than lasagna with the classic accompaniments of salad and garlic bread? After all, the Italians sure know how to feed a family!

For the lasagna I made my bolognese sauce, not an entirely classic ragù perhaps, but one that I like. I used 600g of beef mince for a lasagne to serve 6. Once that was cooked I whipped up a bechemel sauce. For this I gently heated 600ml of milk with a halved onion, a bay leaf and 6 peppercorns. A grating of nutmeg is nice but to be perfectly honest I forgot it! Once the milk started to come to the boil I took it off the heat, then in a separate pan made a roux, which is a cooked mixture of butter and flour used to thicken sauces. To make the roux I melted 50g of butter and then added 50g of plain flour, stirring quickly with a wooden spoon to form a smooth paste. Once that was done I whisked in the milk and heated gently until the sauce was of a good consistency.

Next came the assembly. There’s many a debate to be had about how to layer the meat sauce, pasta and bechemel and whether to use cheese in between or not, but I'll share with you my way, which is a layer of meat sauce, a layer of pasta (unless using non-cook sheets you should cook the pasta first), then a layer of bechemel, and so on. Finally I generously grate parmesan cheese over the top. I baked the lasagne at 190c. It should take around 35-40 minutes and is ready when it’s bubbling and golden.

I made my own garlic bread by slicing a bagette all the way along, making sure not to cut all the way through, so it was still in one piece, and then filling it with a mixture of butter, chopped parsley and crushed garlic cloves. I used 3 cloves and grated them in which made them quite potent, so I think I’d go with a more sociable 2 cloves next time! To cook it I loosley wrapped it in foil and put it in the oven at 200c for 10 minutes, then opened up the foil and cooked it for a further 5 minutes to brown and crisp up on top. This is how Nigel Slater makes his garlic bread and it’s perfect.