Monthly Archives: November 2009

Tur-duck-in

Posted on November 30, 2009 | 3 Comments

Last week I was very busy with the knife as it was Thanks Giving. The typical meal is a roast turkey, but a couple of weeks ago I was asked to make a “turduckin”. I had never herd of such a thing before so had to do my research and it’s a de-boned chicken and a duck all inside a de-boned turkey. Filled with sausage meat. It’s a twist on the royal roast “Bird inside a bird”. Its called tur-duc-in. As you can now guess it is Tur from turkey, Duc from duck and In from chicken. It is also not uncommon to create a Gooducken by swapping the turkey for a goose. It was a delicate operation but looked great at the end and the yanks were “well chuffed” with it. I would love to try one as its sounds great and looks even better so here’s to a Turduckin for next year’s Thanks Giving. I used a free range bronze turkey about 6kg, one free range Bressingham duck and a free range chicken. But on the good side I had a beautiful rolled rib of beef for my Sunday dinner.

Charlie the Butcher.

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Posted in Beef, Duck, Meat History, Poultry, Turkey

Jerk chicken my style

Posted on November 29, 2009 | 7 Comments

I was first introduced to jerk chicken by my old work colleague Wayne who used to take me to Cool Breeze in Hither Green, London. It’s a fantastic jerk chicken shop with such a homely feel and always a great warm welcome when I pop in. Jerk chicken is a traditional Jamaican style of cooking, with meat or fish marinated in a dry or wet rub with hot spices. Jerk is often applied to either chicken or pork, but fish and beef are also not uncommon. I think it is best to marinate any meat for at least 10 hours but ideally overnight. I like using chicken legs for this recipe as they are full of flavour and cheap. Buy free range or organic legs as they will taste of something, unlike the horrid battery cheap chicken which I hate. Also the price for battery chicken breasts isn’t much cheaper than free range/ organic chicken legs so buy them. This is my own jerk style wet rub recipe. I use common ingredients that you may already have in your store cupboard. It’s also very easy to knock up.

ingredients

Olive oil
Fresh Orange juice
Ginger
Chilli
Lime juice
Smoked paprika
Chill powered
Honey
Ground allspice
Cumin seeds
Cayenne pepper
Ground cinnamon
Nutmeg
Sea salt
Pepper
Pickappeppa sauce
Onion

Step 1
Put one teaspoon of each of the dry spices into a mixing bowl, add the juice of the orange and lime. Then the chilli, ginger, onion, honey, a dash of both the olive oil and Pickappeppa sauce.

Step 2
Rub the mix all over the legs.

Step 3
Cover with a plate, place in the fridge and leave overnight.

Step 4
Get some tin foil and make a parcel with, put the legs and sauce in it. Put in a pre heated oven at 180 for about 45 mins.

Step 5
20 minutes before the end put some brown rice on to cook and add some tinned peas for the last 5 minutes to warm them through.

Step 6
Drain the rice and peas and place the cooked legs on top, add the cooking juices.

Step 7
Enjoy with a chilled ginger beer.

Pickapeppa sauce is a traditional Jamaican sauce and helps with a little kick. It’s in most decent food shops. Click here for more information on Pickappa.

Charlie the Butcher.

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Posted in Poultry

Chopped video

Posted on November 24, 2009 | 4 Comments

Here is a little chopped down video of me in action.

Charlie the Butcher.

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Posted in Media

History

Posted on November 22, 2009 | 1 Comment

“If we are to believe the evidence of archaeologists, who employ themselves in studying the signs of man’s progress throughout the ages, the meat business started between fifteen and twenty-five thousand years before the Christian era.”

Sauce; A handbook on meat and text book for butchers.

Charlie the Butcher.

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Posted in Meat History

Lancashire hot pot

Posted on November 19, 2009 | 2 Comments

Lancashire Hot Pot

With the cold and dark nights happening on this side of the globe, my food thoughts often turn to slow, long and warming meat dishes. I love slow cooking, as it’s easy and always enjoyable. This week’s slow cooking dish was the classic Lancashire Hot Pot. A dish from Lancashire, which is in the north of England. After my usual research all information about its origins is a little sketchy but it is from the industrialisation days when Lancashire was famous for steel, wool and coal. It was and is a cheap, easy and wholesome dish, so would tick all the boxes to keep the Lancastrians going. Here is my recipe with a little Charlie the Butcher twist. Served me 3 meals, so ideal for 2 not so greedy normal people.

Ingredients

1 whole neck of lamb into chops, mutton is better if you can get hold of it
4 large potatoes
2 onions
Thyme
Salt
Pepper
Water
Bone marrow
Butter

Step 1
Collect your meat from your butcher, one whole neck of lamb and a marrow bone. You may need to reserve the marrow bone. With a smile on your face ask your butcher to cut each end off the bone.

Step 2
Ask your butcher very nicely to chop it up into nice thick chops.

Step 3
Neck chops, chopped.

Step 4
Get home and turn the oven up to 150.

Step 5
Heat the butter in the frying pan, season the meat and brown.

Step 6
Take the browned chops out and add the onions and a little more butter.

Step 7
Slice the potatoes and get a casserole dish with a close-fitting lid at the ready, layer the meat, pots and onions in the dish, seasoning all as you go and adding a little thyme.

Step 8
Now take the marrow bone and with a knife take out the marrow.

Step 9
Add the marrow to the pot, and then put the water up to the middle of the dish.

Step 10
Put the final layer of pots over the top and over lap them.

Step 11
Put the lid on and cook for 1.5 hours.

Step 12
Take the lid off and butter the pots and finish off for 30 mins to get the crispy top.

Step 13
Serve with a little cabbage, enjoy one of the great British classic winter meals.

The marrow adds just adds a little more depth to the dish which I think brings it together. Neck of lamb is a wicked cheap cut and available in good butchers shops. It’s also lovely boned out and called “neck fillet”, great for curry, stews etc …… it can also be cooked quickly and served rare when fried, grilled or even on that barbie. Enjoy.

Charlie the Butcher.

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Posted in Lamb Cuts, Meat History

The steaks are low

Posted on November 17, 2009 | Leave a comment

As a butcher people sometimes ask about red meat and cholesterol. It’s a important part of our lives staying fit and healthy and red meat can help in this. UK researchers have found eating red meat doesn’t raise your LDL (bad) cholesterol. In the study 1,152 people were tracked for a decade and those who ate 220g of red meat daily had the same cholesterol levels as those who only ate 30g per day. So you can now enjoy that steak even more.

Charlie the Butcher.

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Posted in Health

Breakfast

Posted on November 16, 2009 | 1 Comment

A good breakfast is the key to a good day in my book and on my days off I like to go that extra mile. This simple, quick and lovely breakfast is a favorite of mine. It has 3 key ingredients lambs kidney, dry cured back bacon and black pudding all on thick hand sliced white toast.

Ingredients

2 Lambs Kidneys cut in half and core removed
4 Rashers of dry cured free range or organic bacon
2 Slices of the best black pudding you can get, try the classic Bury Black Pudding
Butter
Decent white bread
Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce

Serves 2.

Step 1

Get all the food ready.

IMGP0090 Step 2

Warm two frying pans up, one for the kidneys and one for the black pudding and bacon.

Step 3

Add the kidneys and fry with the help of the perrins for a minute.

Step 4

Add the black pudding and bacon to the other pan.

Step 5

Cook for 4 minutes until the bacon is coloured and crispy and the black pudding is shinning.

Step 6

Start the toast.

Step 7

Put all goodies on the buttered toast with a twist of pepper and enjoy.

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Charlie the Butcher.

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Posted in Breakfast, Lamb Cuts, Offal, Pork

Beef Wellington

Posted on November 15, 2009 | 1 Comment

457px-Sir_Arthur_Wellesley_Duke_of_Wellington

After the crazy rain that has hit London over the past couple of days, it was time for the first outing of my beloved racing green Hunter wellies today, a present from my folks for my last birthday. This made me think about the posh classic meal “Beef Wellington”. A dish I have only ever eaten a handful of times. Most memorable was sneaking into the Member’s Restaurant at Lords Cricket Ground; I was in heaven watching cricket and eating beef Wellington. But why the name ? …. and who first made such a fantastic dish? Well, after scanning all my cooking books, internet searches and asking randoms along the way, I think I may have cracked it. In 1815 the battle of Waterloo happened. In which Arthur Wellesey the first Duke of Wellington defeated Napolean. Over night the Duke become a hero. On his arrival back home he had a kitchen full of chefs waiting for him, and they wanted to name a dish after the Duke as a reward for the victory. The dish they decided to cook for him was a fillet of beef wrapped in puff pastry. The fillet was said to have looked like a Wellington boot in shape and colour. The Wellington boots are military boots, named after Arthur himself and were made in a brown/red colour, so it was easy to call it beef Wellington as the beef looked like his boots in shape and colour. So the beef Wellington was born and is still going strong today on menus around the globe, and hopefully long may it continue to do so.

Charlie the Butcher.

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Posted in Meat History

Chop the rabbit

Posted on November 14, 2009 | Leave a comment

Rabbits are great, either running in a field or on your plate, I love ‘em. The meat is packed full of flavour, very healthy and also cheap. They are becoming very popular, we sell lots each week. I always go for the wild rabbits, as I find there is a decent gamey taste to the meat. There are lots of different recipes out there from curry to pie. But there is something more to just cooking it, the skinning of a rabbit is an easy skill and also fun.

I’ve put together a step by step guide of how to……

All you need is a rabbit, boning knife, chopper or poultry cutters/shears.

Step 1
Take one gutted rabbit, still in fur.

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Step 2
When buying the rabbit, to check that it is young, try to tear the ear. If the ear tears easily you can buy it. It will be a young rabbit which will be lovely and tender when cooked..

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Step 3
Turn the rabbit on to its back and, starting from the cut already there made when it was gutted, cut towards its back legs.

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Step 4
Cut all the way to the end of the leg, and peel the fur off the meat.

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Step 5
Repeat this process with the other leg. Then cut through the small intestines as close to the rear legs as possible.

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Step 6
Once that’s done, lift the rabbit up and pull the skin down towards the neck being careful not to tear the meat.

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Step 7
Pull the skin all the way to the neck.

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Step 8
Repeat the way you worked on the back legs with the shoulders, peel the skin around the front legs.

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Step 9
Cut off the head with all the body fur attached.

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Step 10
You almost have an oven ready rabbit. Cut off the fur on the legs with either poultry shears, knife or chopper.

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Step 11
One oven ready rabbit, enjoy.

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…. and from one Chaz to another ribit rabbit.

Charlie the Butcher.

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Posted in Game

Beer can chicken

Posted on November 9, 2009 | 1 Comment

Yes! Red Stripe beer roasted with a chicken ? It’s true and it works. I’ve heard a couple of times about people cooking a chicken stuffed with a beer can and decided to carry out a little research to make up my own South East London beer can chicken style recipe. It’s a twist on your normal roast chicken. Give it a go.

Ingredients